Library  of 


•  r  •".  • 


.J^-i 


•  •    •    •  »     •    •  •    • 

• '  •    .•  ''^  •  »•  •  ••• 


REPORT 


ON 


EDUCATION 


BY 


E.    SEOTTIN, 

UNITED   STATES   COMMISSIONER   ON    EDUCATION   AT   THE 
VIENNA    UNIVERSAL    EXHIBITION. 


SECOND    EDITION, 

(aithorized  and  revised  by  the  author.) 


MILWAUKEE,  WIS. 

DOERFUNGER    BoOK    &    PUBLISHING    CO. 
1880. 


*' 

vV 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1880,  by 

E.  SEGUIN, 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  in  Washington. 

(All  rights  of  translation  and  reproduction  reserved.) 


EDUCATiuN  DES^ 


INFANT-EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER    I. 

The  Cradle  and  the  Creche. 

The  Nursery  ;  Young  Mother^  first  Manual ;  Lessons  from  Experience  ; 
Pre-education;  Form  of  the  Cradle;  Enlargement;  Uses;  Ornamenta- 
tion;  Effects;  Necessity  of  the  Crlche;   Nursing,  a  Progressive  Art. 

"Considerons  I'espece  humaine  comme  un  individu 
que  la  duree  infinie  de  son  existence  permet  de 
rapprocher  sans  cesse  d'un  type  parfait,  dont  son 
etat  primitif  ne  donnait  meme  pas  I'idee."  — 

Cahaw's. 

I.  Introduci'ION.  ^n  inquiry  into  the  conditions  of  popular 
education  in  several  countries  can  only  serve  to  furnish  the  elements 
of  comparison  between  what  is  done  at  home  and  what  is  done 
abroad,  in  view  of  improving  home  education.  In  this  light,  the 
writer  looked  at  the  school-collections  exhibited  in  Vienna,  but  soon 
perceived  that  the  most  important  data  were  missing, — some  not  being 
susceptible  of  transportation  or  of  representation  by  specimens,  others 
having  been  mtentionally  withdrawn.     Withdrawn  !  why  ? 

To  educate  children  for  themselves  is  rare  in  Europe,  and  it  is 
considered  rather  Quixotic.  The  youth  of  the  people  are  merchant- 
able commodities,  soon  to  be  credited  to  the  party  which  puts  its 
stamp  upon  them.  Therefore,  where  they  are  worth  having,  they  are 
picked  up  as  eagerly  as  nuggets.  Priests  pretend  to  teach  them  to 
think,  only  to  impose  upon  them  a  belief  which  implies  obedience  to 
their  craft;  Kaisers  claim  their  direction,  not  to  elevate  them,  but  to 
put  them  among  their  droves  of  subjects;  bourgeois  and  manufactu- 
rers give  them  a  minimum  of  instruction,  just  sufficient  to  insure 
their  working  dependence,  and  to  qualify  their  own  sons  to  be  fed  at 
the  public  expense;  while  the  workingmen  themselves — demoralized 
by  such  examples — put  their  apprentices  at  menial  employment,  and 
cheat  them  out  of  their  rightful  professional  training. 

543092 


For  these  and  other  causes,  the  Section  of  Education  of  the 
Vienna  exhibition  was  so  incomplete  as  to  seem  to  preclude,  at  first 
sight,  the  idea  of  making  any  report  upon  it.  But,  considering  that 
completeness  is  not  the  si?2e  qua  non  of  human  eftorts,  the  writer 
thought  of  gathering,  in  and  out  of  the  Welt-:^USStellunq ,  as 
many  facts  as  circumstances  would  permit,  and  of  forming  from  them 
a  judgment,  which  subsequent  observers  could  complete,  confirm,  or 
reject. 

From  this  stand-point,  we  consider  European  children  as  in  four 
groups  :  those  who  receive  no  education ;  those  who  do  not  receive 
the  education  they  need;  those  who  receive  an  education  which  dis- 
qualifies them  for  work;  and  those  whose  education  prepares  them  for 
work.  From  another  point  of  view,  we  saw  that  the  European 
children  enter  the  school  younger,  are  trained  longer,  and  are  ad- 
vanced farther  than  the  Americans.  As  a  consequence  of  this  last 
contrast,  we  shall  have  less  to  say  about  the  primary  and  grammar 
schools,  and  more  about  the  infantile  and  the  professional.  We  will 
leave  the  other  consequences  to  issue  naturally  from  observation. 

Since  singularly  strenuous  and  successful  efforts  have  been  made 
to  overcome  the  apparently  impassable  barriers  which  separate  from 
the  world  some  afilicted  children,  namely,  the  deaf-mutes  and  the 
idiots,  we  will  append  an  account,  somewhat  historical,  but  mainly 
philosophical,  of  these  methods,  in  the  belief  that,  being  positive,  they 
can  be  applied  to  ordinary  children.  Having  no  room  for  an  intro- 
duction, we  would  refer  to  the  History  of  Education,  by  Philo- 
biblius,  (Dr.  L.  P.  Brockett,)  as  the  best  substitute  for  it. 

2.  The  Cradle.  At  the  Vienna  Exposition  ( ^fg;^gr  Welt- 
jiusste'llung)  there  was  a  ''Pavilion  de  VEiifanU'^  room  replete 
with  the  necessaries  of  the  nursery — and  also  with  its  superfluities — 
intended  altogether  to  represent  the  unbounded  wishes  of  a  mother 
for  her  baby's  comfort  and  happiness.  This  palace  of  luxurious 
nursing  ought  to  have  ben  furnished  with  a  little  manual  oi  what  is 
necessary  to  protect  and  to  prepare  life  before  nati\Tty. 

During  this  first  period,  the  feelings  come  mainly  through  reflex 
impressions  from  the  mother — a  process  which  not  only  lays  the 
foundation  of  health  and  vitality,  but  which  forms  the  deeper  strata 
of  the  moral  dispositions  and  of  the  so-called  innate  ideas.  The 
managers  of  the  world  "from  behind  the  screens"  know  this;  for  it 
is  the  time  at  which  they  impose  on  plebeian  women  pilgrimages  and 
ecstatic  neuvaines,  and  keep  those  of  a  higher  class  under  more 
stringent  impressions.  Here  in  Vienna,  for  instance,  from  the  times 
of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  till  quite  recently,  when  an  heir  to  the 
throne  was  expected,  the  Empress  was  given  in  charge  of  a  special 
director,  who  would  regulate  all  her  actions  and  surroundings,  in 
view  of  commencing  the  course  of  submissive  education  of  the  con- 
tingent monarch,  as  early  as  the  first  evolution  from  the  yolk-sub- 


stance  of  the  human  egg,  during  embryogenesis.  Similar  influence 
is  now  claimed  for  an  object  diametrically  opposed  to  the  degenere- 
scence  thus  arrived  at  in  the  house  of  Hapsburg.  It  can  be  attained 
by  advice,  printed  either  in  book-form,  or  on  scrolls,  as  are  the  sent- 
ences of  the  Koran.  But  whatever  may  be  the  form  given  to  this 
magna  charta  of  the  rights  of  the  unborn,  let  it  be  found  precisely 
where  these  rights  ought  to  be  kept  most  sacred,  in  the  nursery ; 
where  their  enforcement  wouldjprotect  the  mother  and  elevate  her 
function,  at  the  same  time  that  it  would  insure  her  fruit  against  the 
decay  resulting  from  wrong  pre-natal  impressions. 

We  know  that  a  cold  contact  with  the  mother  makes  the  foetus 
fly  to  the  antipode  of  its  narrow  berth;  that  a  rude  shock  may  destroy 
it,  or  originate  life-long  infirmities;  that  fear  to  the  mother  is  terror  or 
fits  within;  that  harsh  words  vibrate  as  sensibly  in  the  liquor  of  the 
amnion  as  in  the  fluid  of  the  labyrinth  of  the  ear.  For  instance, 
when  a  mother  has  lulled  her  home  sorrows  with  strains  of  soothing 
music,  her  child,  too  often  an  idiot,  shows  wonderful  musical  procliv- 
ities floating  through  the  wreck  of  his  mind. 

Pre-natal  impressions  need  not  be  of  a  depressing  order  to  leave 
their  mark.  Elation  of  feelings  or  high  aspirations  may  too  impress 
the  fcetus  morbidly,  as  well  as  otherwise.  Example  :  A  couple  of 
artists  marry  under  the  most  exalted  feelings  of  their  art.  Their  first 
daughter,  now  oet  12,  is  a  dreamy  thing,  with  a  brilliant  but  vague  eye. 
Her  ordinary  movement  is  of  brushing  up  and  away,  as  in  the  act  of 
smoothing  the  tones  of  an  oil  painting;  in  her  hands,  searching  for 
delicate  contrasts,  and  unable  of  muscular  exertion,  her  idiocy  seems 
to  be  concentrated.  In  the  process  of  development  of  this  artist-couple 
music  became  the  ideal,  and  their  second  daughter  is  extraordinarily 
gifted  in  it;  otherwise  an  ordinary  child. — Later,  the  same  elation 
of  art-feeling  soaring  in  a  larger  horizon,  the  third  daughter  is  an 
exponent  of  the  philosophy  that  all  art  culminates  in  the  elevation 
of  man  himself.  She,  only  4  years  old,  intuitively  prepares  her  own 
personations  of  excellence  in  artistically  studied  attitudes,  after  hav- 
ing arranged,  on  and  around  herself,  the  luxuries  of  the  house  most 
befitting  her  part;  an  ordinary  child,  too,  in  other  respects. 

The  impression,  resented  by  the  mother,  may  be  transmitted  to 
her  infant,  and  die  away  or  not,  when  he  is  weaned.     Example : 

Madam  R ,  now  of  i  ith  street,  New  York,  being  alone 

with  her  sick  husband  in  a  country-house,  saw,  at  night,  somebody, 
wrapped  in  a  sheet,  trying  to  force  an  entrance.  She,  unarmed  and 
unaided,  cried  out,  pushed  and  piled  heavy  furniture  against  the 
door,  and  succeeded  in  repulsing  the  intruder.  She  soon  after  gave 
birth  to  a  healthy  male  child,  bul  who,  at  the  hour  at  which  this 
struggle  had  taken  place,  would  scream  as  if  in  terror.  At  all  other 
times  he  was  good-humored,  but  no  medical  treatment  could  prevent 
him   firom    awakening  and  screaming  at  that  precise  hour.     This 


habit  disappeared,  when  he  was  taken  from  the  breast  of  his  moth- 
ther.     Become  a  man,  he  has  shown  endurance  and  bravery. 

The  impressions  of  the  mother  can  be  communicated  to 
her  child,  since  they  leave  their  imprints  on  our  much  more 
hardened  tissues  and  features  when  grown  up.  When  twins 
come  from  different  sacs,  they  are  often  unlike;  when  from 
the  same  sac,  they  almost  mvariably  resemble  each  other. 
As  a  proof  that  this  resemblance  is  mainly  due  to  the  identity  of 
their  pre-natal  impressions,let  us  follow  this  further,  as  in  the  example 
of  the  brothers  E . . . .  Born  with  characteristics  almost  identical, 
brought  up  under  the  same  tuition  and  habits,  in  the  college  St. 
Louis,  they  continued  to  look  so  much  alike,  that  greeting  or  punish- 
ment would  often  meet  the  one  instead  of  the  other.  One  entered 
the  atelier  of  De  Laroche;  the  other  went  into  some  moneyed  busi- 
ness. New  impressions  modified  their  features:  one  grew  sensitive, 
the  other  rich;  and  their  likeness  disappeared  in  a  con-esponding 
ratio,  until,  when  seen  last,  they  hardly  looked  Uke  thirtieth  cousins. 

Physicians  will  testify,  that,  when  our  hands  receive  a  new- 
comer, we  read  quite  plainly  upon  his  featurs  on  what  sort  of  feelings 
he  was  bred  by  that  intra-uterine  education  whose  imprints  trace  the 
channel  of  future  sympathies  and  abilities.  Therefore,  if  it  is  noble 
work  to  educate  or  to  cure  the  insane,  the  idiot,  the  hemiplegic,  the 
epileptic,  and  the  choreic;  how  much  higher  i^  the  work  of  prevent- 
ing these  degeneracies  in  the  incipient  being  by  averting  those  com- 
motions which  storm  him  in  the  holy  region  intended  for  a  terrestrial 
paradise  during  the  period  of  evolution  !  To  teach  Hivi  reverence 
toward  the  bearer  of  his  lace,  to  mstruct  Her  in  the  sacredness  of 
bland  and  serene  feelings  during  the  God-like  creative  process,  is 
educating  two  generations  at  once.  This  is  the  highest  education 
of  the  nursery. 

From  this,  the  true  cradle  of  mankind,  let  us  look  at  that  made 
for  the  baby.  There  was  no  eiid  of  them  in  the  Pavilion  de 
V  Enfant ;  and  we  may  find  more  philosophy  in  them  than  the 
upholsterer  intended.  Therein  the  infant  will  at  first  but  continue 
his  ovum-life;  and  for  this  the  cradle  must  be  fitted.  Let  us  see. 
The  head  is  bent,  the  extremities  are  drawn  up,  and  the  body  shaped 
like  a  crescent.  This  attitude  gives  to  the  muscles  the  greatest  relax- 
ation, and  to  the  cartilages,  which  cap  the  bones,  the  position  most 
favorable  to  nutrition  and  growth.  Generally,  the  baby  rests  on  the 
right  side,  to  free  from  pressure  and  to  facilitate  the  movements  of  the 
heart.  In  this  mode  of  reclining,  the  left  hemi-cerebrum  will  con- 
tain more  blood  than  the  right,  which  is  compressed  by  the  pillow. 
Attitudes,  concordant  with  the  sleepy  habits  of  the  first  months  and 
the  activity  of  the  mind  durin  g  this  long  sleepiness,  indicate  the  future 
preponderance  of  the  mental  operations  of  the  left  over  the  right 
side  of  the  brain,  the  approaching  superior  nutrition  and  dexterity 


of  the  right  over  the  left  hand,  and  even  the  later  causation  of  more 
frequent  paralysis  on  the  left.  For  the  present,  and  for  some  time 
yet,  baby  will  live  mainly  in  his  sleep;  during  which,  more  than  when 
awake,  he  will  be  seen  angry,  smiling,  or  thinking,  in  the  shape  of 
well-defined  dreams. 

How  important  it  is,  then,  that  the  cradle  be  formed  in  accord- 
ance with  these  natural  indications!  A  transitory  abode  between 
the  pelvis  and  the  bed;  a  warm,  soft,  yet  supporting  recipient,  ampler 
than  the  former,  better  defined  in  its  shape  than  the  latter,  with 
curves  less  short  than  circles  and  more  varied  than  ovals.  A  perfect 
egg,  vertically  split,  would  make  two  such  cradles,  or  nests,  suited 
either  for  child  or  bird. 

But  as  soon  as  the  nursling  awakes  to  the  world,  and  wants  to 
be  introduced  to  everything,  his  couch  must  be  enlarged  and  enliv- 
ened, and  must  look  more  and  more  like  a  school  and  play-room. 
Otherwise,  it  becomes  a  prison,  whence,  Tantalus-like,  he  looks  at 
his  surroundings.  Here  is  his  first  lesson  of  practical  sociability.  To 
see  and  not  be  able  to  reach,  to  perceive  images  with  no  possibility 
of  seizing  the  objects,  renders  him  impatient,  fretful,  or  unconcerned, 
and  opens  an  era  of  exaction  upon  others,  or  of  diffidence  of  himself, 
or  of  indifference  tor  any  attainment,  which  unavoidably  ends  in 
immorality  or  incapacity,  or  in  both.  Viewed  from  this  stand-point, 
these  cradles,  so  varied,  so  elegant,  so  easy  to  keep  clean  and  to 
carry  from  the  light  of  the  window  by  day  to  the  recess  of  the  al- 
cove at  night — the  best  being  of  French  and  Austrian  manufacture — 
are  yet  very  imperfect  in  their  bearing  on  education.  Let  us  mark 
some  of  their  short-comings. 

Little  ones  have  an  instinctive  horror  of  isolation.  Whoever 
studies  them  knows  that,  when  they  awake,  they  look,  not,  at  first, 
with  staring  eyes,  but  with  searching  hands;  they  seek  not  for  sights, 
but  for  contacts.  This  love  of  contact,  whence  results  the  primary 
education  of  the  most  general  sense,  the  touch,  is  ill-satisfied  with 
the  uniformity  of  the  materials  at  hand,  as  exemplified  at  Vienna  or 
Paris.  (In  November  1874  I  saw  a  similar  exhibition,  a  Pavilion 
de  V  Enfant y  in  the  Champs  Elysees,  but  it  was  no  improvement 
on  that  of  the  Prater.) 

In  this  respect,  the  child  of  poor  people  fares  better,  having  the 
opportunity  of  amusing  himself  for  hours  in  experiencing  the  rude 
or  soft,  warm  or  cold  contacts  of  his  miscellaneous  surroundings; 
whereas  the  hand  of  the  offspring  of  the  rich  finds  all  around  the 
sameness  of  smooth  tissues,  which  awake  in  his  mind  no  curiosity; 
he  calls  for  some  one  to  amuse  him,  gets  first  angry,  then  indiffer- 
ent, and  does  not  improve  his  main  and  surest  sense  of  knowledge, 
the  touch. 

But  soon  other  senses  are  awakened.  Audition  —  of  which 
hereafter  —  and  vision,  for  the  enjoyment  of  which  the  cradle  be- 


comes  a  kind  of  theatre.  For  a  mother  must  be  very  destitute  or 
despondent,  who  does  not  try  to  enliven  it  with  some  bright  things 
laid  on  or  flapping  above.  One  may  benevolently  smile  at  the 
extravagancies  of  colors  and  patterns  intended  to  express  this  feel- 
ing, but  will  also  find  in  them  a  serious  warning. 

Physiologically  viewed,  this  is  a  grave  matter.  The  form  of  the 
cradle  demands  fitness;  its  ornamentation  requires  a  more  extended 
knowledge.  When  planning  it,  a  mother  mu§t  remember  that  the 
fixity  of  the  eye  upon  some  object — particularly  upon  a  bright  one, 
and  more  so  if  that  object  is  situated  upward  and  sideways  from  the 
ordinary  range  of  vision  —  and,  through  the  eye,  the  fixedness  of  the 
mind  while  the  body  is  in  a  state  of  repose,  constitute  a  concurrence 
of  conditions  eminently  favorable  to  the  induction  of  hypnotism,  and 
its  terrible  sequels,  strabismus  and  convulsions,  —  of  hypnotism, 
which,  when  unsuspected  and  not  controlled  is  often  mistaken  for 
natural  sleep. 

Psychologically  viewed,  the  decoration  of  the  cradle  is  of  equal 
moment.  To  surround  an  infant  with  highly  wrought  or  colored 
figures  often  grotesque,  or  at  least  untrue  to  nature,  may,  by  day, 
attract  more  attention  than  his  faculties  of  perception  can  safely 
bestow,  hence  fatigue  of  the  bcain  or  worse,  a  resort  to  the  solution 
presented  the  early  teachers  of  supernaturalism;  but  it  will,  by  night, 
evoke  other  than  the  perceptive  and  rational  powers,  for  when 
the  lights  and  shadows  of  dusk  alter  all  the  forms  and  deepen  every 
color,  the  faculty  of  imprinting  images  being  led  astray,  it  photo- 
graphs distorted  imprints,  from  confused,  often  moving,  sometimes 
rustiing,  ornaments.  It  is  then  that  the  perception  of  the  impossible, 
by  the  sight  and  hearing  mainly,  educates  the  senses  to  feed  the 
mind  on  hallucinations,  and  prepares  it  to  believe  them  instead  of 
inquiring  into  their  causes,  till  it  comes  to  the  fatal  CTCdo  (juia 
ahsurduni.  The  seeds  of  most  of  the  insanities  are  sown  at  or 
before  this  time. 

These  were  the  first  impressions  that  forced  themselves  upon 
my  mind  in  the  Pavilion  (U  V Enfant.  Here  is,  in  a  few  words, 
a  resume  of  them :  Paucity  of  the  material  upon  which  the  inex- 
perienced yet  inquisitive  baby  can  exercise,  with  interest  and  profit, 
his  sense  of  touch;  profusion,  bad  taste,  and  dangerous  disposition 
of  the  objects  which  speak  to  the  eye,  if  not  always  with  the  inten- 
tion, at  least  with  the  almost  uniform  result,  of  giving  wrong  or  dan- 
gerous impressions. 

Attention  was  next  called  to  what  had  been  done,  and  to  what 
had  been  left  undone,  for  the  cultivation  or  the  satisfaction  of  the 
other  senses  of  the  infants.  But  here  it  was  soon  perceived  that  our 
inquiries  went  beyond  the  sphere  of  what  was  exhibited.  Perfumes 
were  there  as  an  attenuation,  and  music  as  a  distraction;  nursery- 
arrangements  intended  rather  for  the  mother's  and  nurse's  comfort 


than  for  baby's  improvement.     We  left  this  attractive  place   with 
another  grief. 

3.  The  Creche. — This  Pavilion  de  V Enfant  ought  to  have 
contained  at  least  one  model  creche. 

Creche  is  the  French. name  of  the  public  nursery  where  workr 
ing- women  leave  their  little  ones  in  the  morning,  and  whence  they 
bring  them  home  at  night.  The  creche  !  Horrid  necessity  !  Be- 
ginning of  the  communistic  inclined  plane  upon  which  those,  who 
pay  and  do  not  receive  rents,  slide  with  a  fearful  rapidity;  yet  a  kind 
institution  for  those  already  fallen  into  the  gulf.  Since,  therefore, 
creches  must  be,  the  writer  suffered  from  not  seeing  their  latest 
improvement  represented  at  the  Vienna  W^lt-Ausstelluva  next 
to  the  appliances  of  the  most  luxurious  nursing.  There  could  have 
been  tested  the  action  of  colors,  of  light,  and  its  various  attributes, 
on  the  organ  of  vision;  the  influence  of  varied  sounds,  of  harmonies 
and  melodies  on  the  virgin  audition,  the  mind,  and  the  sympathetic 
centres;  the  power  of  primary  perceptions  to  awaken  first  ideas,  to 
impel  the  determinations  of  the  will,  and  to  raise  the  various  pas- 
sions; the  effects  of  diet  upon  those  passions;  the  effect  of  modifica- 
tion of  food  and  digestion;  the  influence  of  rest  and  sleep  on  the 
body's  temperature,  on  the  pulse  and  respiration;  the  influence  of 
the  artificial,  the  moist,  or  the  dry  heat  of  the  nursery  on  the  too 
precocious  development  of  the  nervous  centres;  and,  subsequently, 
on  the  prevalence  of  chronic  or  acute  meningitis,  diphtheria,  and 
croup;  besides  many  other  problems  whose  solutions  depend  on  the 
early  study  of  phenomena,  which  can  be  found  in  the  creche  as 
surely  as  those  of  disease  are  found  in  hospitals.  In  this  respect,  let 
us  bear  in  mind  that  the  rich  man  can  never  flatter  himself  that  he 
does  a  gratuitous  charity,  since  from  its  poor  recipient  comes  many 
times  its  worth  in  useful  experience,  directly  benefiting  the  would-be 
benefactor. 

We  do  not  overlook  the  fact  that  many  mothers,  particularly 
among  those  both  educated  and  fruitful,  pay  the  closest  attention  to 
these  questions,  and  become  expert  therein,  as  they  do  in  nursing 
their  sick;  but  as  they  j.lack  the  means  of  record  and  transmission  of 
their  observations,  thei  experience  dies,  so  to  speak,  with  each  gen- 
eration. Hence  the  nursing  of  babies  continues  to  be  a  work  of 
devotion,  but  does  not  become  the  co-ordinate  and  progressive  art 
it  ought  to  be  in  well-organized  creches  opened  to  criticism  by 
public  exhibitions.  Thus  in  Vienna,  at  least,  this  opportunity  was 
lost. 

The  child,  soon  two  years  old,  is  up,  sees,  hears  well  enough, 
talks,  though  imperfectly,  walks,  though  totteringly.  Let  us  follow 
him  where  he  can  yet  teach  us  something,  in  the  Salle  d'plsyle 
and  in  the  Kindergarten. 


10 


Chapter  2. 
The  Salle  D'Asyle. 

Mothers  as  teachers;    The  salle  d^asyle;    Effect  on  the  child;   Plan;   Curriculum; 
Remarks ;  Motives;   Definition. 

4.  Mothers  as  teachers. — There  are  infant-schools  of  various 
grades,  from  the  most  ragged  to  the  most  select;  the  average  of  them 
are  the  ^aUe  d' Plsyle  and  the  Kindergarten',  both  are  intended 
for  the  child,  when  he  is  once  on  the  war-path  of  curiosity. 

But  cannot  he  learn  from  his  mother,  instead  of  going  abroad 
so  soon,  and  while  so  incapable  of  self-support,  that,  off  her  knees  or 
arm,  the  physiological  heat  soon  recedes  from  the  surface  of  his  skin? 
Cannot  she  teach  him  as  well  as  rear  hmi,  give  him  the  food  of  the 
mind  and  the  food  of  the  body,  so  appropriately  comprehended  in 
the  word  "nurture?"  No;  at  least,  few  can.  Women  cannot  do  it, 
because  they  lack  time  and  knowledge.  Millions  of  them  have  sold 
their  whole  lives  for  a  paltry  pittance;  thousands  of  others  have  been 
taught  the  basest  absurdities  instead  of  the  realities  which  their  child- 
ren thirst  for.  Hence  the  children  of  the  most  numerous  class  are 
compelled  to  go  to  the  Salle  d' ^syle,  while  the  richer  are  sent  to 
the  Kindergarten. 

5.  The  Salle  d':^syle,  being  open  to  the  needy,  receives 
them  younger;  the  Kindergarten,  being  a  pay-school,  receives 
them  later.  These  differences  generate  in  the  sequel  many  other 
distinctions,  the  comparison  of  which  will  be  the  more  satisfactory 
for  being  commenced  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  Therefore,  we 
would  advise  the  study  of  the  ^syle  prior  to  that  of  the  Q^arten; 
and  we  would  not  even  counsel  making  a  first  visit  in  the  middle  or 
at  the  end  of  a  scholastic  term,  when  one  can  only  see  the  order, 
routine,  and  monotony  resulting  from  a  settled  discipline;  but  rather 
visit  it  at  the  beginning  of  a  session,  when  the  ancients  (six  to  seven 
years  old)  have  left  for  the  primary,  and  the  freslimen  (two  to 
three)  come  in  totteringly,  giving  the  observer  a  vivid  idea  of  their 
first  and  novel  impressions.  And  how  could  these  impressions  be 
otherwise  than  novel  ?  New  scenery,  new  language,  new  rules  meet 
them.  The  most  sensible  change,  however,  comes  from  the  differ- 
ence in  the  character  of  the  personal  contacts  experienced.  Only 
yesterday  how  frequently  did  he  leave  unfinished  a  piece  of  mischief, 


to  be  kissed  and  wanned  at  the  contact  of  mother's  larger  breast, 
softer  frame  and  superior  heating  power  ?  To-day,  at  the  command 
of  a  distant  index,  he  is  filed  among  the  many,  and  has  to  stand  by 
himself  as  isolated  as  a  statue  on  a  monumental  column. 

What  will  he  do,  then?  As  isolation  would  ht-vacuurrii  he 
will  adapt  his  own  mode  of  association  with  that  of  his  new  fellows, 
and  thereby  give  us  our  first  lesson  in  the  art  of  grouping  children 
according  to  sociability  at  different  ages. 

As  soon  as  the  little  ones  are  together,  they  coalesce  in  two 
forms.  Seated,  they  support  each  other  sidewise,  not  unlike  young 
or  feeble  birds  on  the  perch  at  nightfall.  Standing,  they  range  in  a 
one-line  procession,  like  the  globules  of  the  blood  in  the  act  of  circu- 
lation. These  rudimentary  forms  of  association  of  the  infant,  which 
can  also  be  observed  in  their  first  attempts  to  play,  have  certainly 
been  taken  into  account,  either  instinctively  (^C071  atnore)  or  phil- 
osophically (by  the  inductive  process)  in  the  organization  of  the 
Scilles  d'  Asyle.  Aside  from  all  theories,  it  is  a  fact  that  the 
material,  the  training,  and  part,  at  least,  of  the  living  motors  of  the 
^syle  are  in  accord  with  the  psycho-physiological  conditions  of  the 
incoming  pupils.  Here,  at  least,  the  school  has  been  m:de  for  the 
child,  and  the  child  has  not  yet  been  manipulated  to  fit  the  school. 

Considering  the  great  difficulties  attending  the  building  of  these 
Asyles  where  they  are  most  needed,  in  cities  where  air  and  room 
are  only  desiderata;  the  novelty  of  the  social  venture,  which  looked 
so  much  like  rearing  babies  without  mother's  milk;  the  liability  of 
falling  into  the  pedagogic  routines  so  deeply  rooted  elsewhere;  and, 
moreover,  the  preying  of  partisans  on  the  asylum,  with  the  view  of 
impressing  the  innocent  with  the  stamp-mark  of  their  hatreds,  are 
some  of  the  risks  encountered,  and  partly  avoided  in  the  creation 
and  management  of  the  Salles  d'^isyU  in  most  of  the  European 
cities. 

There  was  in  Vienna  no  complete  model  of  Salles  d^^sylc, 
but  several  of  their  accessories,  as  seats,  cards,  images,  and  books; 
therefore,  we  deferred  fomiing  an  opinion  on  them,  till  we  saw  their 
operation  in  large  places  like  Brussels  and  Paris. 

We  found  them  arranged  with  a  great  similarity  of  plan.  A 
yard  carefully  drained  and  grax^eled,  open  to  the  sun  if  possible,  and 
planted  with  trees,  discreedy  shading  its  contour;  a  few  shrubs  and 
flowers  withal  in  their  season.  In  the  entrance-hall,  the  children, 
who  come  about  9  o'clock,  leave  their  cloaks,  caps,  and  baskets, 
they  wash  or  are  washed,  eat,  and  play,  when  the  weather  does  not 
permit  them  to  go  into  the  yard.  The  ScilU  itself  (Italian  Sdla, 
our  school-room,  the  German  (xarteil)  is  composed  of  one  or  'two 
large  rooms  pardy  filled  with  seats  and  partly  open  for  exercises. 
The  benches  are  low,  long,  straight,  and  movable;  or  curved,  graded, 
and  connected  by  aisles  easy  to  ascend,  or  to  walk  along,  in  single 


file.  Near  by  are  a  few  cradles  for  those  who  may  need  to  lie  down. 
There  are  two  stands  to  hold  the  images  or  tableaux,  a  chest  for 
safe- keeping  of  the  objects  to  be  used  in  teaching,  and  two  straw  or 
cane  chairs.  The  rest  of  the  room  is  level,  unincumbered,  and  ready 
for  the  exercises,  in  which  the  children  make  their  serpent-like  evol- 
utions. The  number  of  children  should  not  exceed  fifty,  but  may 
reach  seventy,  a  hundred,  or  even  two  hundred.  Happily,  at  12 
o'clock,  they  are  seated  at  a  meal  of  soup,  and  something  warm,  and, 
besides,  have  delicacies  from  their  baskets.  This  meal,  for  which  the 
families  pay  a  half-penny,  when  they  can  afford  it,  is  the  renewal  of 
the  miracle  of  the  five  loaves  and  two  fishes;  but  as  it  takes  place 
daily  none  sees  it  in  its  true  light. — The  servant,  who  prepares  it,  also 
attends  to  the  wants  of  the  little  ones  from  9  a.  m.  to  5  p.  m. 

During  these  eight  hours,  the  principal  and  her  apprentice-assis- 
tant are  continually  engaged  in  teaching  and  training.  They  have  a 
salary  of  from  $200  to  $380.  Their  duties  are  to  receive  and  make 
tidy  the  incomers,  to  make  them  sit,  stand  up,  raise  their  hands,  fold 
their  arms,  turn  right,  left,  march  softly,  or  in  measure,  around  the 
stands,  to  the  graded  seats,  and  then  to  be  seated.  Then  a  prayer 
is  said  in  dislocated  periods  by  the  multitudinous  voices;  a  hymn  is 
sung  by  the  willing  ones,  standing.  They  are  seated  again,  quest- 
ioned on  theogony,  theology,  subordination  to  the  church,  and  the 
like,  (but  not  in  all  the  plsyles  alike);  then  off  for  a  well-earned  walk, 
objects,  colors,  forms-lessons,  playing  ball  or  other  game,  with 
accompaniment  of  selected  songs,  cantative  numeration,  the  use  of 
the  abacus  (houUer),  walking  again;  reading,  listening  to  stories; 
then  a  good  meal;  washing  of  hands  and  faces,  play  in  the  yard  or 
hall,  and  repetition  of  the  exercises,  till  the  mother  or  sister  comes 
to  take  them  home.  On  this  curriculum,  and  on  its  various  diver- 
gent or  even  opposite  tendencies,  many  observations  and  long  disser- 
tations could  be  made;  few  and  short  must  be  ours. 

If  the  object  was  a  direct  and  formal  teaching,  it  would  be  too 
comprehensive,  as  containing  too  many  matters,  and  as  addressed 
to  too  many  grades  of  comprehension  —  from  two  to  seven  years  — 
without  reckoning  idiosyncrasies.  Both  difficulties  might  be  obviated 
by  separa5ting  the  lessons,  or  by  separating  the  ages;  but,  happily, 
economy  has  prevented;  so  that  the  Salle  (V Plsyle  fashioned  itself 
more  after  the  characters  of  childhood  than  upon  the  set  antecedents 
of  other  schools;  the  great  teacher  is  imitation,  which  constantly 
and  silently  carries  the  newcomers  in  the  wake  of  the  old  stock. 

6.  Motives.  —  This  character  is  particularly  noticeable  in  the 
way  in  which  children  are  brought  to  the  front.  In  other  schools, 
the  avowed  or  principal  motive  is  duty ;  scholars  ouglit  to  work, 
ought  to  learn.  Here  the  impulse  is  curiosity,  which  is  awakened 
only  when,  the  child  being  ripe  for  imitation,  his  teacher  has  only  to 
touch  the  proper  chord  at  the  proper   time,    and   he    will   rise  and 


13  

follow  in  the  wake  of  others.  These  are  the  means  by  which  each 
in  his  turn,  sooner  or  later,  comes  to  the  front,  and  begins  his  active 
life  at  his  own  hour.  You  see  him,  at  first  timidly  raise  his  small 
finger  to  indicate  that  he,  too,  will  have  something  to  say.  If  the 
teacher  fails  to  notice  it,  the  finger  timidly  returns  under  the  apron, 
not  to  show  itself  again  mayhap  for  months  to  come.  But  once  out 
—  I  mean  the  mind  which  rose  behind  the  finger  and  which  will  not 
"down" — he  begins  to  take  an  interest  in  the  curriculum,  and  when- 
ever he  comprehends,  or  thinks  he  comprehends,  being  in  sympathy 
with  the  general  movement  of  the  school,  he  will  gi^•e  free  expres- 
sion to  his  communion  in  the  ideas  which  agitate  the  minds  of  the 
mass.  This  observation,  moreover,  shows  that  the  upraising  of  each 
individual  mind  is  not  to  be  exclusively  attributed  to  the  teacher's 
cleverness  and  zeal;  but  is  as  much,  if  not  altogeter,  tlie  result  of  the 
action  of  the  synergy  of  the  mass  upon  the  inertia  of  the  individual : 
the  traming  power  of  the  whole  on  tlie  unit.  Thus  there  is  nothing 
compulsory,  artificial,  or  unnatural  in  that  double-motive  process 
which  helps  the  child  to  take  his  share  of  the  curriculum  within  the 
limits  of  his  taste  and  capacity;  these  motives  are  both  of  the  natural 
order,  spontaneous  curiosity  and  simultaneous  entraineilient. 

But  I  am  aware  that  other  means  of  influence,  or  stimuli,  are  at 
work. 

The  political  stimulus  is  not  ashamed  to  show  itself  in  the  Salle 
d'^syle,  there  to  develope  a  taste  for  the  ribbons  and  crosses  which 
have  been  borne  by  the  French  mandarins,  apparently  not  without 
effect,  as  talismans  against  Prussian  bullets;  but  which  excite  in 
children  the  pride  of  trinkets  and  an  ambitition  for  meretricious  dis- 
tinctions. And  the  so-called  religious  influence,  stealthily  boring  its 
way  into  the  Salle  d' ^SijUy  operates,  too,  by  the  action  of  pagan 
objects  and  idolatrous  worship;  acts  on  the  inexperienced  senses,  by 
the  teaching  of  supernatural  causes  and  eflects,  by  the  lowering  of  the 
natural  sciences,  and  by  the  falsification  of  the  lessons  of  history,  in 
order  to  give  young  morality  an  incurable  wryness. 

These  audacities — part  of  the  weapons  in  the  last  strugle  for 
empire — are  used  in  almost  every  school  in  Europe  to  degrade  the 
masses,  or  to  keep  them  in  subjection.  This  would-be  teaching 
affects  various  forms.  It  is  pardy  printed  and  partly  oral;  avowed  in 
one  school,  surreptitious  in  another;  and  more  explicit  before  the 
children  alone,  than  when  there  are  visitors.  However,  now  and 
then,  one  chances  to  hear  the  teachers  narrate  the  apparitions  of  the 
Virgin  Mary;  miracles  and  theurgic  cures;  the  transmigration  of  a 
demon  into  a  black  catf)  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  away  the  soul 


t)  The  same  demon  is  served  up,  with  flames,  &c.,  to  the  negroes  of  Africa; 
not  in  Salles  d^Asyle^  but  on  calicoes  provided  by  religious  Europe  for  their 
costumes,  and  for  their  moral  education. 


of  an  infant;  the  reprimand  addressed  to  a  child,  for  having  disap- 
proved of  the  cheat  practiced  by  Jacob  on  Esau,  because  that  cheat 
was  in  accordance  with  God's  designs.  Not  only  are  these  super- 
natural and  immoral  methods  of  acting  on  the  conscience  of  infants 
substituted  for  the  pure  and  natural  motives  of  childhood,  sane  curi- 
osity, and  good  example;  but  inopportune  distinctions  of  sexes  are 
knowingly  intruded,    which  open  the  way  to  unseasonable  curiosity. 

At  first,  the  Congregationist  teachers — in  plain  French  parlance 
the  ignorantains,  or  teachers  of  ignorance — ,  having  once  obtained 
a  foot-hold  in  the  Salle  d' :^syle,  tried  to  improve  it  by  separating 
the  girls  from  the  boys.  That  would  not  work.  Separated, 
they  became  dull,  as  if  life  itself  had  retired  from  the  Salle, 
Brought  together  again,  girls  and  boys  behaved  and  learned 
harmoniously.  But  what  is  now,  we  are  often  asked,  the 
moral  effect  of  their  common  attendance  ?  Some  teachers  say 
that  the  girls  stimulate  the  boys  by  the  quickness  of  their 
repartees;  others  that  the  boys  are  good  examples  to  the  girls  by  the 
directness  of  their  answers.  Old  teachers  have  noticed  that  some 
years  the  girls  had  an  entrainbuj  power  over  the  boys;  other  years 
the  boys  were  decidedly  the  leaders.  Sexually,  there  was,  thank 
God,  no  sex  among  them.  But  it  was  so  important  to  those,  whose 
business  it  is  to  rule  one  sex  by  another,  that  there  should  be  sex,  that 
they  determined  to  create  it,  where  there  can  be  none,  among 
infants.  Therefore,  they  managed  to  make  them  feel  this  distinction, 
and  become,  as  early  as  their  second  year,  a  prey  to  the  mixture  of 
dread,  attraction,  mirage,  hallucination,  and  sin,  resulting  from  this 
untimely  revelation.  And  this  revelation  was  rendered  the  more 
offensive  by  punishing  girls  by  seating  them  among  boys,  and  boys 
among  girls,  where  both  soon  suspect  and  learn  things  which  require 
a  director  of  conscience.  Henceforward,  this  po\ver  will  stand  be- 
tween them  and  rule  them  both,  even  unto  death;  commencing  early 
to  finish  late,  and  low  to  finish  high.  To  these  deleterious  influ- 
ences, the  principle  which  presided  to  the  creation  of  the  Salle 
d'^SSyle,  and  which  dictated  its  successive  improvements,  has  not 
thus  far  succumbed.  That  principle  is  still,  in  the  main,  what  it 
ought  to  be,  the  pure  love  of  children,  without  which  none  ought  to 
come  near  them. 

He  who  loves  children  does  not  believe  them  naturally  wicked; 
and  he  who  believes  them  v/icked  will,  ipso  facto,  make  them 
wicked.  If  you  trust  them,  they  will  trust  you;  be  kind,  they  will 
be  good.  But  none  can  love  children  who  have  no  children,  or 
swear  to  have  none.  That  is  why,  really  or  potentially,  fruitful 
women  love  them  more  than  men;  and  even  girls  and  single  men 
love  them  more  than  women  barren  whether  willingly   or  otherwise. 

It  was  the  good  furtune  of  the  Salle  d'  ^syle  to  be  early  taken 
in  hand  by  a  woman  who  could  put  into  its   management,  with  the 


15  

requisite  qualities  of  the  will  and  of  the  mind,  motherly  virtues  and 
powers.  Madame  Marie  Pape-Carpantier*)  stands  quite  in  the  same 
relation  to  the  Salle  d':^Sljle,  as  Froebel  does  to  the  Kiudergar- 
ten,  which,  the  former  from  France,  the  latter  from  Germany,  they 
have  spread  over  many  countries.  At  the  same  time,  these  two  infant- 
schools  manifest  a  tendency  to  coalesce  ;  and,  before  their  fusion  is 
completed  in  a  more  comprehensive  plan  of  general  education,  it 
may  not  be  amiss  to  describe  and  define  their  actual  characteristics.!) 
The  Salle  d'^^syle  is  a  custodian  school  where  infants  are 
familiarly  taught  the  elements  of  knowledge  and  of  sociability,  with 
a  view  to  preparing  them  for  the  associated  labors  which  they  will 
soon  have  to  perform  to  earn  their  living. 

*)  Since  this  Report  was  written,  this  heroic  woman  has  received  her 
reward  ;  after  thirty  years  service  the  Jesuites  had  her  ostracised  from  the  asyles 
which  she  created  and  organized  :     French  reward. 

t)  I  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  this  plan  of  fusion  exposed  by  Mile. 
Caroline  Progler,  the  eminent  teacher,  the  17th  Sept.  1877,  at  Fribourgh  before 
the  6th  Congress  of  the  Society  of  the  Instituteurs  de  la  Suisse  Romande,  and  to 
see  it  applied  in  the  infant-schools  of  Geneva  by  their  Superintendent,  Madam  de 
Portugal.     So  ideas  grow  in  our  age  faster  than  men. 


(2) 


16 


Chapter  hi. 

The  Kindergarten. 

Definition —  Use  of  Objects — History —  Teachers — Methods — Automatism —  Train- 
ing— The  Kindergarten  carried  into  the  Salle  d^Asyle — Its  importance. 

7.  Practically,  a  Kindergarten  approaches  the  ideal  of  a 
home-like  reunion  of  children,  where  they  are  pleasantly  placed  in 
contact  with  nature,  and  allowed  the  free  expansion  of  their  individual 
aptitudes  and  social  qualities. 

Madam  Von  Marenholtz  Buelow  has  written  the  first  known  des- 
cription of  this  home-like  reunion.  "In  May  1849,  arriving  at  the 
baths  of  Liebenstein,  my  landlady  told  me  that  a  man  had  setded  on 
a  small  farm,  who  danced  and  played  with  the  village  children,  for 
which  he  was  called  a  natural  fool.  Some  days  after,  I  met  him;  a 
tall,  thin,  with  long  gray  hair,  leading  a  troop  of  village  children,  from 
3  to  5  years  of  age,  most  of  them  bare-footed,  and  scantily  clothed.  He 
marshaled  them  for  a  play,  sang  with  them;  his  simple  bearing,  while 
the  children  played  under  his  watchful  care,  affected  us  to  tears,  and  I 
said  to  my  companion:  This  man  is  called  a  natural  foot ;  perhaps 
he  is  one  of  those  who,  ridiculed  and  stoned  by  their  contemporaries, 
have  monuments  erected  by  the  following  generation — then  to  Him : 
You  are  interested  in  the  education  of  the  people? — Yes,  said  he,  fixing 
his  kind  eye  upon  me ;  unless  we  raise  the  children,  our  ideals  can 
not  be  realized."  The  village  teacher  thus  spoken  to  and  of,  was 
Friedrich  Froebel  in  his  play-scfiool  which,  in  the  following  year, 
1850,  was  called  a  Kindergarten. 

Before  it  received  its  final  name,  it  was  called  tJie  nursery  for 
cllildren.  But  as  a  school  it  must  have  been  almost  ignored,  since 
when  Horace  Mann  made  his  celebrated  Report  on  the  popular 
schools  and  methods  of  teaching  in  Europe  in  1843,  he  did  not  say 
a  word  of  the  kindergarten,  nor  named  Froebel,  but  "signalized  as 
the  two  foremost  objects  of  his  admiration,  the  teaching  of  the  deaf- 
mutes  to  speak,  and  the  first  school  for  idiots  at  Bicetre".*)  Indeed 
this  Report  caused  the  creation  in  Massachusetts  of  similar  schools. 


*)  From  a  letter  of  Madam  Horace  Mann  to  Miss  Mathilda  Satterie,   the 
talented  Manager  of  one  of  the  Industrial  schools  of  New  York. 


17    

If  this  indefatigable  inquirer  had  found  traces  of  a  kindergarten  in 
Europe  it  would  have  been  he,  and  not  his  noble  wife  and  her 
apostolic  sister,  Miss  E.  Peabody,  who  would  have  later  preached 
the  said  news  of  the  movement  school  and  of  the  pleasant  learning. 
Far  from  it,  Horace  Mann  remained  the  professor  of  strict  discipline, 
progressive  but  puritan,  who  never  heard  of  a  play-SChool,  nor 
dreamed  of  becoming  the  teacher  who  dances  and  plays  with  his 
pupils,  like  a  natural  fool. 

This  new  teaching  was  better  represented  in  Vienna  than  the 
other  infant-schools,  for  the  principal  reason  that  it  had  more  to 
show.  Its  show  consisted  in  the  objects  used  in  learning  and  play- 
ing— which  are  there  quite  identical  occupations  with  the  children — 
and  in  other  objects,  products  of  their  own  work-and-play.  Of  these 
objects,  the  most  remarkable  are  the  collections  of  pictures  of  ani- 
mals, objects,  familiar  human  actions,  popular  scenes, &c.,  made  in  view 
of  extending  the  knowledge,  or  of  provoking  the  speech,  comparison, 
and  deduction.  The  tableaux  of  animals  from  Paris  (Hachette)  are 
the  best;  Leipsic  furnished  the  finest  graduated  scenes.  The  large 
tableaux  of  simple  melodies,  which  can  be  read  from  the  farther  end 
of  an  ordinary  room,  came  from  Switzerland,  where  they  do  not  be- 
long exclusively  to  the  Kindergarten, 

There  is  also  an  abundance  and  variety  of  typical  forms,  some 
used  for  teaching,  others  for  the  construction  of  complicated  figures, 
and  the  now  unavoidable  lettered  or  colored  blocks;  also,  the  sticks 
or  tiles,  adjustable  with  pins  and  mortises,  to  represent  skeleton- 
objects,  glass  beads,  (which  children  may  swallow,  trample  on,  and 
break  in  dangerous  fragments,)  ribbons,  colored  papers  and  straws, 
blank  books,  and  sheets  cut,  marked,  or  quadrated,  to  impose  their 
symmetry  upon  the  work  done  on  them,  and  many  other  ingenious 
appliances  to  please  and  instruct,  too  numerous  to  mention.  This 
richness  would  create  confusion  if  it  were  not  easy  to  arrange  these 
objects  in  their  natural  order,  as  those  used  to  impart  knowledge  and 
those  to  exercise  the  skill,  one  kind  speaking  to  the  mind,  another  to 
the  hand,  and  a  certain  number  of  each  kind  forming  the  curriculum 
of  each  day  in  the  week.  Finally,  there  are  a  number  of  exercises 
which  are  not  represented  in  the  Welt-:)iusstellung y  but  which  are 
detailed  in  manuals,  consisting  of  movements,  harmonious  to  certain 
tunes,  songs  accompanied  or  not  by  pantomimes,  calisthenics,  and 
dancing,  not  forgetting  the  practice  of  the  alphabet  and  first  reader, 
stealthily  brought  thither  by  an  old  teacher.  Miss  Routine. 

However,  the  Kindergarten  is  a  great  success.  It  is  well 
represented  at  Berlin,  Vienna,  London,  Paris,  Brussels,  la  Hague, 
New  York,  and  all  the  other  large  cities  of  Europe  and  America. 
Moreover,  its  moral  principle  of  making  the  school  attractive,  and 
learning  a  pleasure,  works  its  way  into  the  minds  of  the  disciplinar- 
ians,  and  tends  to  modify  and  mollify  the  old  school  coercions  and 


rigors.  But  as  the  adoption,  in  infant  and  primary  schools,  ot  the 
technical  changes  introduced  in  the  Kindergarten]  is  only  a  question 
of  time,  this  time  must  be  employed  in  considering  what  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  this  new  education,  and  whether  teachers  comprehend  and 
apply  this  principle  m  its  entirety. 

8.  History. — For  some  reason,  the  history  of  the  Kindergar- 
ten has  never  been  frankly  told.  The  typical  child  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  educated  in  the  first  Kindergarten.  His  teacher  did 
not  adhere  to  any  particular  school,  but  prepared  the  natural  means 
of  educating  all  children  by  a  life-long  idealization  of  what  homo- 
culture  must  be.  This  teacher  had  but  one  pupil.  The  other  child- 
ren of  his  time  were  coerced,  he  was  induced.  Educators  were  still 
uniformly  flogging — each  pedagogue  holding  his  ferule,  or  each  col- 
lege boasting  of  a  Brother  Frappart,  (Strike-Hard;)  his  child  had  his 
natural  gifts  developed  by  objective  gifts  into  individual  talents  and 
social  usefulness,  and  became  the  type  of  modern  culture.  The 
history  of  his  progress  traced  the  next  curriculum.  Free  activity 
became  the  acknowledged — no  more  the  accursed — motor  of  youth. 
The  natural  gifts  were  allowed  to  form  the  basis  of  individual  talent 
and  of  social  usefulness;  to  each  man  the  bent  of  his  genius  and  a  trade. 

Who  did  that?  Keen  Jean  Paul  Richter?  Devoted  Pestalozzi? 
Zealous  Froebel?  No!  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  alone  did  it!*)  Pity 
that  such  good  men  are  loaded  with  the  honor  of  inventing  what 
they  only  put  into  practice.  But  let  us  hasten  to  say  that  in  this  ped- 
dling of  the  idea  which  makes  all  men  equal  before  the  lessons  and 
impulses  of  nature,  there  was,  and  is  yet,  enough  of  glory  for  all  the 
workers. 

Why  the  idea  of  Rousseau  was  not  as  readily  applied  as 
it  was  comprehended  by  the  society  of  his  time  —  the  most  quick- 
witted since  the  coterie  of  Pericles  —  is  accounted  for  by  many  cir- 
cumstances. This  society  was  shaken,  and  about  to  disappear ;  and 
the  Germans,  who  took  up  the  idea  of  Rousseau,  were  only  practical 
teachers.  This  alone  must  have  prevented  them  from  comprehend- 
ing Rousseau,  who  had  conceived  more  general  notions  than  those 
of  the  official  teachers  of  his  time,  or  even  of  their  radical  opponents, 
Locke,  Condillac,  Helvetius;  and  was  enabled,  by  his  great  power 
of  concentration,  to  work  up  his  ideas  into  a  structure,  whose  founda 
tion  rests  on  liberty  and  spontaneity. 

9.  Method. — The  Kinder  gardeners  began  their  revolution  by 
substituting  objects  for  books  in  teaching,  according  to  the  express 
doctrine  of  Rousseau  ;  but  that  is  no  evidence  that  they  understood 
his  philosophy.  For  instance,  their  great  and  avowed  plan  in  giving 
object-lessons  was  to  extend  the  knowledge  of  the  child,  not  to  give 
more  precision  and  reach  to  his  perceptions.  Objects  are  dis- 
tinguished by  their  properties,  among  which  the  form  is  conspicuous. 

*)  Commenius  and  Montaigne  foresaw  it,  Rousseau  formulated  it. 


19    

The  form  results  from  an  ensemble  of  limiting  lines,  which,  so  to 
speak,  mold  the  identity  of  objects ;  that  is  the  reason  why  object- 
lessons  have,  for  a  base,  line-lessons.  Line-lessons  are  given  by 
Kinder  gardeners  with  blocks  and  sticks,  the  combinations  of  which 
produce  diverse  forms  or  figures ;  but  these  lessons  are  not  concur- 
rently given  in  their  most  ideal  realization,  which  would  lead  to  draw- 
ing and  manual  movements.  Therefore,  the  concourse  of  manual 
movement  with  drawing  and  combination  of  bodies  necessary  to 
perfect  ideals  remains  ignored.  The  line-lessons,  thus  limited,  are 
given  in  the  natural  order  from  the  simple  to  the  complex,  but  they 
certainly  are  neither  complete,  nor  systematic,  nor  productive  of 
serial  ideas. 

To  ascertain  if,  in  the  direct  teaching  of  objects,  the  Kinder- 
gardeners  have  been  guided  by  broader  views  than  that  of  lines,  let 
us  consider,  for  instance,  their  primary  block  or  figure.  Had  they 
chosen  it  with  their  senses — as  it  must  speak  to  the  senses  of  the 
child — instead  of  with  their  mind,  they  would  certainly  never  have 
selected  the  cube,  a  form  in  which  similarity  is  everywhere,  difference 
nowhere,  a  barren  type,  incapable,  by  itself,  of  instigating  the  child 
to  comparison  and  action.  Had  they,  on  the  contrary,  from  infant- 
ile reminiscences,  or  from  more  philosophical  indications,  of  which 
we  have  no  room  to  write,  selected  a  block  of  brick-form,  or  a 
parallelogram,  the  child  would  have  soon  discovered  and  made  use 
of  the  similarity  of  the  straight  lines,  and  of  the  difference  of  the 
three  dimensions.  By  training  one  pupil  with  the  cube,  and  another 
with  the  parallelogram,  one  can  see  the  difference  : 

a.  Put  a  cube  on  your  desk,  and  let  the  pupil  put  one  on  his; 
you  change  the  position  of  yours,  he  accordingly  of  his.  If  you 
renew  these  moves  till  both  of  you  are  tired,  they  will  not  make  any 
perceptible  change  in  the  aspect  of  the  object.  The  movement  has 
been  barren  of  any  modification  perceptible  to  the  senses  and  ap- 
preciable to  the  mind.  There  has  been  no  lesson,  unless  you  have, 
by  words  speaking  to  the  mind,  succeeded  in  making  the  child  com- 
prehend the  idea  of  a  cube  derived  from  its  intrinsic  properties :  a 
body  with  six  equal  sides  and  eight  equal  angles. 

h.  Hold  a  parallelogram,  (a  pine  brick  2X4X8  inches,  if  you 
please,)  and  give  a  like  one  to  the  pupil.  Put  it  up  before  you, 
presenting  to  view  its  4  x  8  inches  face;  he  does  the  same.  We  leave 
it  up,  only  turning  to  the  front  its  2x8  inches  face,  and  we  continue 
till  we  have  exhausted  all  the  rectangular  positions  of  our  rectangle; 
every  position  having  given  the  child  a  perception  of  each  side,  and 
their  reunion  in  his  mind  having  suscitated  a  complete  idea  of  the 
object,  and  of  its  possible  uses  in  relation  to  its  form.  What  a  spring 
of  effective  movements,  of  perceptions,  and  of  ideas  in  this  exercise, 
where  analogy  and  difference,  incessandy  noted  by  the  touch  and 
the  view,  challenge  the  mind  to  comparison  and  judgment ! 


20  

The  Kinder  gardener  begins  the  teaching  of  forms  with  a  ball 
alone,  or  with  a  cube  and  a  ball,  or  with  several  cubes,  without  ap- 
pearing to  suspect  the  radical  differences  between  exercises  of  com- 
parison of  the  different  parts  of  an  object,  and  of  two  objects,  and 
the  exercises  of  combination  of  single  objects  to  form  a  compound 
one.  But  the  comparison  of  two  objects  which  are  without  analogy 
(like  the  cube  and  the  ball)  is  not  only  incongruous  for  the  child,  it 
is  also  deceptive  for  the  teacher ;  the  child  may  distinguish  them 
mainly  as  playthings,  while  his  teacher  may  believe  he  has  imparted 
the  notions  of  straight  lines  and  flat  surfaces,  and  of  curve  lines  and 
curve  surfaces,  to  his  pupil.  Having  begun  wTong,  if  it  is  found 
necessary  to  use  two  forms  to  give  birth,  by  their  comparison,  to  the 
idea  of  configuration,  then,  on  one  side,  let  the  cube  be  compared 
with  the  parallelogram,  and,  on  the  other,  the  sphere  with  the  ovum. 
In  either  of  these  comparisons,  there  would  be  found  the  elements 
of  a  homogeneous  judgment,  (viz,  analogy  and  difterence;)  but  it 
would  not  be  a  primary  one,  nor  an  unmixed  one,  as  seen  by  the 
following  example :  If  it  were  found  necessary  to  use  several  cubes, 
in  order  to  produce,  by  their  juxtaposition,  the  idea  of  the  cubic 
form,  the  teacher  would  soon  discover  that  another  idea  had  crept 
in  among  the  blocks — the  idea  of  construction,  or  of  the  combination 
of  parts  to  form  a  whole  —  an  idea  which  is  far  from  elementary. 
This  immingling  of  the  compound  types  of  lines  and  forms  in  the 
teaching  of  the  elementary  ones  shows  an  imperfect  understanding 
of  the  subject.  So  does  the  lack  of  rational  progression  in  the  teach- 
ing of  compound  lines  and  figures ;  and  more  so  the  already  noted 
isolation  of  these  exercises — form-studying,and  block-buiiding — from 
their  congeners  and  factors,  drawing  and  hand-exercises. 

Every  line  of  the  outward  world  represents  a  design  worked  out  at 
the  point  of  contact  of  pressure  with  resistance :  that  is  nature's  way 
of  modeling  its  gracious  or  awful  scenery.  By  a  similar  process,  every 
line  of  our  own  creation  is  the  consolidated  track  of  the  passage  of  our 
hand;  so  that  every  line  left  behind  leaves  on  matter,  and  expresses, 
not  only  our  ideal  meaning,  but  the  very  feelings  which  agitated  it 
from  the  recesses  of  our  ideal  or  sympathetic  regions.  Whence  we 
conclude  that,  concurrently  to  teaching  the  notions  of  forms  and 
lines,  we  must  train  the  hand  to  execute  them  —  not  only  as  expres- 
sions of  our  ideas,  but  also  of  our  feelings.  Otherwise,  we  would 
give  an  undue  predominance  to  objective  over  subjective  education ; 
and  that  is  what  has  happened,  according  to  my  estimation,  in  the 
Kindergarten,  notwithstanding  the  set  intentions  of  its  author.  On 
another  hand,  we  admire  his  ingenuity  in  using  these  first  gifts,  as 
he  kindly  calls  them,  to  impart  elementary  notions  of  practical  arith- 
metic and  geometry. 

lo.  Training.  Here  the  hand  has  been  used  more  and  better 
than  in  primary  schools  or  colleges ;  but  it  has  been  no  more  physi- 


31  

ologically  trained  to  do  the  bidding  of  the  will  than  the  mind  has  to 
understand  the  progression  of  lines  and  forms. 

The  objects  made  by  the  children,  exhibited  in  Vienna,  or  in 
the  (r'drten,  speak  well  for  the  zeal  of  the  teachers  and  the  industry 
of  the  pupils ;  but  they  are  products  of  the  use  of  the  hand,  no 
means  of  physiologic  training ;  some  will  say  that  use  trains.  That 
is  true  as  far  as  it  goes  ;  and  since  this  has  become  a  part  of  the 
problem  of  education,  it  is  necessary  to  answer  the  question,  "How 
far  does  it  go  ?"  No  farther  than  the  automatism  necessary  to  repeat 
a  task  on  a  given  plan ;  and  it  leaves  the  worker  just  where,  in  hist- 
ory, the  lower  classes  in  India,  in  Egypt,  and  in  Europe  stopped, 
and  where  the  Americans,  as  a  people,  must  not  stop. 

To  complete  our  observations  on  the  unsystematic  but  practical 
use  of  the  hand  by  children,  let  us  incidentally  say — though  the  idea 
deserves  a  greater  development — that  we  have  at  once  distinguished 
two  classes  of  object-making  in  the  Kindergarten  :  one,  more 
play-like,  whose  history  is  interesting  :  the  other,  more  scholastic, 
whose  importance  in  the  method  invites  discussion. 

Object- making  for  pleasure  has  probably  from  time  immemorial 
occupied  a  large  place  in  the  family;  but  the  <'£mile"  made  it  al- 
most fashionable.  Under  the  influence  of  that  book,  mothers,  and 
particularly  fathers,  if  my  infant  recollections  are  correct,  brought  to 
this  mode  of  informal  teaching  an  eagerness  equalled  only  by  that 
of  their  little  ones.  We,  petits  Bourguignons,  would  try  to  imi- 
tate papa's  hand,  when  its  moving  silhouette  on  the  wall  intended  to 
be  a  representation  of  the  wolf,  the  hare,  or  the  carpenter  at  his 
bench.  We  would,  after  him,  build  with  dominoes  trembling  towers, 
and  with  cards,  tents  for  our  soldiers.  From  paper  we  manufactured, 
by  simply  folding,  chicks,  (^coCoteSy)  houses,  Noah's  arks,  and  fleets 
of  less  historical  crafts  ;  and  with  scissors  we  made  purses,  scales, 
hangings,  frills,  and  crowns.  We  soon  learned  to  cut  apricot  and 
cherry  stones  into  hearts,  baskets,  chaplet-beads ;  to  form  the  acorn 
and  the  horse-chestnut  into  grotesque  shapes,  and  to  make  cups  and 
vases  out  of  melon-seeds.  The  same  Kinder  gardener  of  nature 
would  show  us  in  the  Spring  how  to  give  a  voice  to  the  willow,  by 
separating  its  bark  from  the  wood,  cutting  vocal  cords,  and  re-uniting 
the  parts  as  a  flute ;  or  in  summer  to  pick  up  tall  green  rye-stalks, 
and,  under  a  hawthorn  by  the  way-side,  to  split  them,  according  to 
their  thicknesses,  to  produce  the  varied  concert  which  would  frighten 
the  bird  on  our  way  home.  At  home,  again,  we  would  be  shown 
the  use  of  tools  in  our  childish  undertakings,  which,  mischievous  as 
most  of  them  would  be,  unhooping  casks  to  give  them  more  strength, 
tearing  the  covers  off  our  school  books  to  bind  them  in  a  brighter 
style,  &c.,  could  not  fail  to  develop  handicraft.  But  now  more  of  these 
reminiscences  crowd  on  the  mind  than  we  have  room  for,  and  we 
must  check  their  flow,  and  thank  Froebel  for  having  harbored  in  his 


22  

Kindergarten  some  of  our  best,  alas !  forgotten,  means  of  home 
education, 

We  now  come  to  systematic  object-making  proper.  With  blocks, 
sticks,  straws,  and  the  other  things,  on  quadrated  tables,  slates,  or 
papers,  the  children  superpose  objects,  inlay  ribbons,  trace  lines, 
paint  figures,  and  various  other  things.  These  pretty  combinations 
they  execute,  not,  as  superficial  lookers-on  imagine,  by  an  intellectu- 
al process,  but  within  the  strict  limits  of  prepared  plans,  by  the  repeat- 
ing capacity  of  their  senses,  particularly  of  the  vision.  On  these  prepar- 
ed plans,  antipodal  arrangements  are  incited  by  dualistic  sensations, 
and  are  performed  by  the  property  inherent  to  muscle,  of  repeating 
its  own  vibrations  \  a  property  which,  in  the  animal  fiber,  constitutes 
automatism.  It  is  this  vibratile  property — first  recognized  by  Bag- 
livy :  Be  Flbra  Motrica,  cap.  ii.  vibrations,  which  renders  epi- 
lepsy less  curable  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  past  attacks. — It 
is  it,  too,  which,  substituted  for  the  operations  of  the  mind  by 
aCCOUtumance  in  labor,  renders  them  quicker,  and  more  regular  at 
the  same  time,  but  insusceptible  of  perfection  in  the  long  run.  The 
effects  of  both,  the  dualistic  structure  and  the  vibratile  property,  are 
well  illustrated  in  the  case  :  a,  of  the  infant,  who,  having  one  ob- 
ject in  one  hand,  wants  another,  and  if  possible  a  similar  one  in  the 
other  hand ;  or  having  experienced  on  one  side  of  his  body  a  sensa- 
tion agreeable  or  otherwise,  is  left  in  suspense,  awaiting  the  same  sen- 
sation on  the  other  side ;  h,  and  of  grown  people,  who,  after  rubbing 
one  side  of  their  body  or  face,  or  one  limb,  experience  on  the  op- 
posite side  an  itching,  which  also  imperiously  calls  for  a  similar  rub- 
bing. For  the  same  duality  of  sensations,  the  kitten  makes  its  toilet 
very  systematically  on  each  side  with  both  paws ;  and,  more  to  our 
point,  its  mother  —  v/ho  keeps  her  Kindergarten  at  night — when 
giving  it  one  of  her  object-lessons  with  a  mouse,  or,  in  default  of  a 
mouse,  with  a  paper  ball,  not  only  teaches  it  to  see  in  the  dark,  and 
to  smell  what  it  cannot  see  —  admirable  sensorial  gymnastics  —  but 
also  to  catch  the  game,  let  go,  and  seize  again,  alternately  and  aut- 
omatically, with  its  right  and  left  claws.  But  from  this  object-lesson, 
there  are  lessons  for  others  than  kittens.  That  is  an  object-lesson, 
no  doubt,  its  object  being  to  impart  a  knowledge  of  the  mouse,  of  its- 
habits,  of  its  modes  of  escape  and  defense ;  but  it  is  also  a  subjective 
lesson,  in  which  the  object  becomes  subordinate  to  the  subject,  by 
bringing  forward  the  training  of  the  senses  and  of  the  muscular  con- 
tractility, necessary  to  make  a  living;  a  result  not  always  attained 
by  classical  education.  But  the  amount  of  training  which  suffices  to 
enable  pussy  to  take  its  degrees  in  the  instinctive  school  does  not 
suffice  to  graduate  a  child  in  respect  to  intellect  and  moral  volition. 
He  is  arrived  at  the  point  of  turning  to  higher  aims.  At  this  point, 
the  Killder gardeners  fail  to  establish  the  link  of  continuity  between 
the  automatic  and  the  willed  action,  the  preception  and  the  idea,  the 


23   

instinct  and  the  morality.  And  why  ?  Because  they  have  employed 
all  the  while,  knowingly  or  not,  the  instruments  of  the  school  of  the 
naturalist  with  the  principles  of  the  supernaturalist.  Their  education- 
al process  consisted  in  assigning  to  all  objects,  acts,  or  ideas,  the  re- 
motest of  the  final  causes,  nistead  of  the  nearest  proximate  or  prob- 
able one ;  or  of  frankly  leaving  a  blank  where  experience  had  not  yet 
given  a  natural  answer. 

This  culture  by  the  savage-like  process  of  thinking  and  acting, 
given  even  in  the  would-be  realistic  school,  discourages  teachers  and 
students,  curtails  curiosity  by  rendering  its  stirrings  aimless,  lowers 
the  learned  into  quietism,  the  ignorant  into  brutism,  and  the  child  to 
automatism.  It  is  a  fact,  that  all  matters  viewed  in  that  light  be- 
come dead  objects  ;  that  men  looking  in  that  direction  see  only  fate 
ahead  ;  and  that  the  nations  who,  under  our  very  eyes,  descend  in 
the  scale  of  manhood,  do  it  just  as  fast  as  they  place  supernaturalisni 
above  naturalism  in  education.  In  this,  the  school  reflects  the  con- 
dition of  science  when  tainted  with  the  hypothesis  of  spirit  and  matter. 

This  liypothesis,  yet  supported  by  the  theory  of  the  two  lives  of 
Bichat,  upholds  the  idea  of  an  encephalon  supreme  over  the  other 
nervous  organs,  and  receiving  its  inspirations  from  powers  above,  in 
antagonism  to  the  dictates  of  Him  who  rules  the  parts  below.  (As 
a  decoy,  the  investigations  tending  to  locate  a  vital  knot  in  the 
skull  were  encouraged.) 

The  other  idea  is  that  of  a  sympathetic  double  chain,  acting 
on,  and  actuated  by,  the  cerebro-spinal  axis  and  its  net-work,  the 
heart  and  its  vessels,  the  stomach  and  its  dependencies,  besides  its 
own  many  plexuses  and  ganglia  ;  an  idea  which  represents  the  nerv- 
ous system  as  a  unit,  a  self-acting  voltaic  pile,  good  to  work  as  long 
as  the  liquids  of  the  tissues  remain  oxidizable  in  physiological  pro- 
portions, without  preternatural  interference. 

Who  can  fathom  the  difference  which  those  principles  open  be- 
tween two  schools  ?  One  set  of  children  imposed  on  by  supernat- 
ural or  miraculous  solutions  of  their  inquiries,  the  other  helped  to  re- 
fer phenomena  to  the  nearest  natural  law  already  found  or  to  be  in- 
vestigated; one  set  fated  to  blind  submission,  the  other  free  to  in- 
quire, and  to  acquire  all  possible  knowledge.  And  though  it  could 
not  be  said  that  the  Salle  d':^syle  and  the  Kindergarten  are 
exact  realizations  of  these  typical  doctrines — since  I  have  taken  some 
pains  to  show  how  they  respectively  somewhat  deviate  from  them — 
they  are  average  specimens  of  the  possibility  of  the  adaptation  of 
these  doctrines  to  the  present  infant-schools,  and  of  the  efforts  of 
partisans  to  put  their  stamp  on  blank  brains  and  sympathetic  ganglia. 

But  as  these  principles  are  incompatible,  and  cannot  coalesce^ 
there  is  on  foot  a  plan  of  fusing  the  Salle  d  :^syle  in  the  Kinder- 
garten,  in  view  of  infusing  in  the  most  popular  school  the  progres- 
sive elements  of  the  select  one.     The  naturalist  teachers  are  few,  and 


24  

persecuted  in  several  countries ;  the  supernaturalists  are  organized  in 
corporations,  and  supported  by  the  powers  to  whom  they  bargained 
to  deliver  youth  shorn  of  its  free  will ;  therefore,  the  true  teacher's 
task  has  against  it  all  the  external  elements,  but  for  it  the  inward  ele- 
ments of  justice  and  progress. 

We  watched  this  movement  as  closely  as  possible,  and  found, 
naturally  enough,  the  schools  of  these  hunted  reformers  spreading 
under  difficulties.  However,  we  have  seen  them,  in  Paris,  Geneva, 
and  Brussels  working  well.  From  the  :iisyle,  or  Kindergarten  per- 
iod, to  apprenticeship,  the  "Tfnion  Scolaire"  carries  along  both 
sexes  so  satisfactorily  that  its  girls  and  boys  have  positions  secured 
two  years  in  advance.  But  in  Lyons,  where  we  wished  also  to  see 
them,  those  schools  had  just  been  closed  :  A  part  of  a  succession  of 
indignities  perpetrated  by  the  prefect-monster  of  1873,  to  raise  the 
anger  of  the  Lyonnais  to  cannonade  them,  and,  through  smoke  and 
blood  to  bring  Henry  V.  on  the  wings  of  Notre  Dame  de  Fourviere. 
The  good  sense  of  the  people  defeated  this  plan,  but  the  Union 
Scolaire  was,  and  still  remains,  suppressed  —  for  which  Notre 
Dame  de  Fourviere  is  yet  heard  laughing  outright.  Pauvre 
France!  So  that  I  cannot  say  that  there  is  in  Paris,  Vienna,  or 
anywhere  else,  a  true  "Physiological  Infant-School." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Physiological  Infant-School. 

Origin  and  basis;  Opportunities  for  its  establishment ;  Physiological  considera- 
tions; Should  the  encephalon  be  first  trained?  Central  nervous  system;  Sym- 
pathetic functions ;  Training  of  contractility ;  Automatism;  Rhythm;  Imita- 
tion; Symmetry;  Asymmetry;  Effects  on  man  and  animals ;  Equal  educa- 
tion of  both  sides;   Recapitulation. 

II.  The  Physiological  Infant-School  will  result  from  the 
union  of  the  kind  training  of  the  Salle  d':^syle  and  the  joyous 
exercises  of  the  Kindergarten,  with  the  application  of  physiology 
to  education.  None  will  question  the  opportuneness  of  this  intellec- 
tual movement;  but  one  may  hesitate  to  predict  where  it  will  suc- 
ceed best.  Germany  had  the  start,  but  failed  to  comprehend  the 
entirety  of  the  idea  of  a  general  system  of  education  strictly  physio- 
logical. France,  early  favored  with  the  ideas  of  Montaigne,  Bayle, 
Rousseau,  Pereire,  Itard,  and  others,  has  of  late  shown  itself  ill-adapt- 
ed for  their  culture  and  propagation ;  and  just  now  her  ruling  classes 
fly  into  a  fury  at  the  simple  enunciation  of  a  new  idea  ;  they  would 
strangle  Hercules  in  his  cradle  were  he  born  among  them.  England 
has  the  brains  and  the  means  to  educate  all  her  men  and  women ; 
but,  just  now,  she  applies  both  to  over-educate  gentlemen,  from  a 
mistaken  comprehension  of  Darwin's  theories.*)  Holland  and 
Switzerland,  oases  of  thought  in  Europe,  would  accept  the  idea  of 
physiological  education  for  infants ;  but  they  need  it  less  than  other 
provinces,  since  their  women  are  the  most  competent  and  willing 
to  educate  their  children  at  home. 

But  why  look  abroad  for  opportunities  which  are  ripe  m  our 
midst  ?  The  nation  which,  in  its  infancy,  organized  primary  and 
grammar  schools  for  two  millions  of  children  is  able  to  create  the 
infant-school,  not  by  copying  European  institutions,  but  by  forming 
its  own  out  of  the  conception  of  the  popular  wants.  This  new  im- 
pulse will  come,  as  came  the  former :  ideas  percolate  through  minds, 
like  water  through  the  soft  rind  of  earth,  to  form  mighty  currents ; 
let  us  only  tell  the  truth,  it  will  soon  be  realized ;  fifty  thousand  lady 
teachers,  who  listen  for  the  approaching  idea,  stand  ready  to  apply 
it,  if  true. 

■*)  Since  1873,  England  has  made  the  noblest  efforts  to  open  popular  schools 
for  all  her  children,  and  even  for  all  those  affected  with  idiocy. 


26    

12.  Physiological  considerations. — Of  the  three  factors  of 
the  Infant-School,  we  have  sketched  the  Salle  (V.'^syle  and  the 
Kindergarten.  We  must  now  sum  up  the  contributions  of  physiol- 
ogy to  the  natural  method  of  education.  The  physiological  method 
trains  the  organs  to  educate  their  functions,  and,  conversely,  exer- 
cises the  functions  to  develop  their  organs.  But  whatever  may  be 
the  gross  proximate  organs  of  our  functions,  these  organs  are  subor- 
dinate to  the  nervous  system ;  all  actions  being  initiated  or  reflected 
by,  or  conveyed  to,  one  of  the  nervous  centers  by  nerve-cords. 
Electric  currents  likewise  occur  in  animal  muscles  and  in  vegetable 
tissues ;  but  the  stimulation  of  animal  tissues  takes  place  in  the  hun- 
dredth part  of  a  second,  and  that  of  the  vegetable  tissue  in  about  a 
third  part  of  a  second.  After  several  strong  stimulations,  the  fiber 
of  a  frog  loses  its  contractility,  but  recovers  it  after  rest ;  so,  after 
each  stimulation,  a  leaf  is,  as  it  were,  exhausted,  and  requires  a  rest 
of  ten  to  thirty  seconds  to  recover  its  contractile  capacity.  Thus  the 
process  of  vital  contractility  is  the  same  in  the  vegetable  as  in  the 
animal  tissue,  only  thirty  times  slower  to  recover  itself,  after  exhaust- 
ion. But  what  amount  of  scholastic  stimulation  can  a  child  bear  ? 
And,  when  he  is  exhausted,  how  much  of  rest  is  needed  to  restore 
his  nervous  contractility  ?  Who  cares  ?  In  other  words,  the  modes 
of  expenditure  and  of  restoration  of  contractile  synergy,  which  is  the 
first  function  of  all  living  organism,  are  not,  but  should  be,  studied 
in  the  child,  as  they  have  been  in  the  frog,  or  in  the  Di<J!Cia,  by 
Dr.  J.  B.  Sanderson ;  so  that  this  calculation  could  be  made,  from 
the  beginning,  the  economical  basis  of  education. 

The  economical  basis  of  education  rests  upon  the  facts  that 
every  being  has  his  normal  heat;  that  man  has  his — 98^.6  Fahren- 
heit, =3  7*^  centigrade  rro*^  of  the  Physiological  Thermometer ;  that 
any  deviation  from  this  norvie  represents  an  abnormal  oxidation ; 
and  that,  by  the  vibration  of  the  nervous  apparatus  during  afferent, 
reflex,  or  deferent  circuits,  surplus  heat  is  evolved.  This  surplus 
heat  evolved  at  school  above  the  norme  (98'^.6  F.  =  37'^  C.  =  o  of 
the  Physiological  Thermometer)  represents  the  economical  expense 
of  life  in  labor,  as  the  surplus  heat  evolved  during  fever  is  the  mathe- 
matical expression  of  its  waste  in  disease.  But  how  a  scholastic 
expense  of  heat  of  .4  C.  above  the  norvie,  from  morning  till  night, 
may  suddenly  or  gradually  increase  to  i'^,  2^,  or  more  degrees,  and 
become,  not  only  pathological,  hut  deadly,  is  the  first  problem 
which  raises  itself,  like  a  specter,  before  a  teacher  who  has  thus  lost 
some  of  his  best  pupils — unless  he  purposely  educates  them  for  the 
next  world. 

A  well-manufactured  but  sophistic  book  recently  created  a  sen- 
sation, by  attributing  to  overwork  at  school  the  ruin  of  girls'  health. 
If  the  author  had  studied  his  subject  ("Sex  in  Education")  in  both 
sexes,  instead  of  in  the  tormented  profile  of  enervated  young  ladies. 


27    

he  could  have  seen  that  the  collegiate  curriculum  is  as  murderous  for 
boys  as  for  girls,  when  applied  by  learned  ignoramuses.  For  instance, 
it  is  but  yesterday,  that  the  promising  young  Dr.  Richerand  died  of 
overwork  because  the  modern  tests  of  the  science,  in  which  his 
grand  father's  name  will  remain  famous,  were  not  applied  in  time ; 
physicians  are  fallible,  of  course ;  but  what  of  those  who  pretend  to 
rule  the  school  m  virtue  of  their  infallibility  ?  Against  them,  in  a 
single  family,  history  records  two  of  their  victims  for  1872 — '73. 
The  young  Due  de  Guise,  and  Don  Fernando  de  Montpensier,  his 
cousin,  who  both  died  from  scholar's  meningitis,  which  could  have 
been  suspected,  watched,  and  arrested  upon  the  timely  indications 
of  physiological  thermometry ;  an  art  advocated  by  Littre,  therefore 
deprecated  by  the  governor  of  these  princes,  the  archbishop  of  Or- 
leans. But  there  are  thousands  of  over- worked  brains — irrespective 
of  sexes — which,  not  being  of  royal  pulp,  leave  no  names — heads 
on  wings  floating  in  the  tears  of  their  mothers.  Therefore,  before 
commencing  their  course,  teachers  must  establish  the  individual 
nor  me  of  temperature,  pulse,  and  respiration  of  each  pupil,  unless 
the  latter  comes  from  home  with  these  nornies  already  established 
— nornies  far  more  important  than  the  proofs  of  vaccination.  And 
they  ought  to  refer  to  this  standard  of  health,  if  not  daily,  at  least 
whenever  the  child  seems  overworked. 

I  know  that  physicians  must  do,  and  control  this  work ;  that  is 
why  I  read,  last  year,  a  paper  on  the  "Interference  of  physicians  in 
Education"  before  the  American  Medical  Association,  and  two  others, 
on  the  use  of  our  parks  and  gardens  as  school-grounds,  "Garden- 
schools",  before  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  (April  30,  1877 
and  February  i,  1878).  Indeed,  the  agitation  for  a  more  physio- 
logical education  must  not  cease  till  physicians  will  watch  over  the 
expense  of  vitality,  and  the  developments  of  the  functions,  of  our 
five  millions  of  pupils. 

13.  Training. — And  now  for  the  work  of  the  school.  What 
traming  will  best  please,  suit,  and  benefit  the  infant  ?  That  which 
corresponds  to  the  organization  and  to  the  natural  evolution  of  the 
functions  in  childhood. 

This  order  does  not  tally  with  the  trilogy  of  mind,  soul,  and 
matter ;  nor  with  the  dissection  of  the  mind  in  mental  faculties ;  nor 
with  the  monarchical  pretensions  of  the  conjugal  couple  of  cerebral 
hemispheres  over  the  whole  nervous  system ;  but  it  harmonizes  with 
the  observations  of  Vic  D'Azyr,  Cabanis,  Durand  de  Gros,  Brown- 
Sequard,  Vulpian,  Shiff,  and  more  recently  Claude  Bernard  (in  his 
Legons  siir  la  chaleur  animale),  who  have  gradually  disclosed 
the  capacity  of  small  ganglia  and  even  of  the  peripheric  termini  of 
nerves,  to  become  the  starting,  or  the  central  points  of  neurotic 
actions,  in  which  the  encephalon  may  act  a  secondary,  or  no  part. 

Ages  before  the  brain  effloresced  in  convolutions  in  mankind, 


28    

living  things  had  appetences,  emotions,  sympathies,  or  repulsions, 
and  biological  duties,  not  unlike  those  which  to-day  challenge  our 
admiration  in  fishes  and  insects.  In  our  species,  foetuses  have  been 
born  living  without  brain  or  spinal  cord,  like  the  lower  animals,  desti- 
tute of  these  organs.  But  normally,  when  the  rudimentary  encepha- 
lon  is  not  yet  in  contact  with  the  world  through  the  senses,  the  sym- 
pathetic current  makes  the  foetus  participant  to  the  effective  and 
affective  modalities  of  the  mother,  through  the  umbilical  cord. 
Through  this  conductor  of  impressions,  circulation,  nutrition,  neur- 
ility,  are  altered  or  strengthened ;  infirmities  and  deformities,  super- 
ior or  strange  endowments,  are  acquired ;  moral  individuality  is 
even  formed  in  utero  as  in  a  mold;  all  this  while  the  head  sometimes 
receives,  but  rarely  gives  the  impulse.  When  the  child  is  yet  at- 
tached to  the  mother  by  the  mammpe,  everything  coming  to  his 
senses,  and  mostly  to  his  tact  by  contact  with  her,  is  intuitively 
known  and  resented,  without  the  slightest  interference  of  the  mind, 
through  sympathies. 

At  the  time  he  enters  the  infant-school,  if  the  child  has  not 
been  brutified  by  an  intellectual  education,  and  his  physiological  plaa 
tortured  by  forcing  liis  impressions  tov/ard  the  brain,  one  can  see  in 
him,  as  in  a  mirror,  the  anatomical  bent  of  his  impulses  or  of  his 
impressions  :  The  sympathetic  appears  as  a  tramway  of  both  sensi- 
tiveness and  conduction,  leading  to  and  from  all  the  viscera,  and 
also  as  a  generator  of  nerveforce  ready  for  distribution,  to  the  head 
by  the  cephalic  filaments,  to  the  heart  by  the  penetration  in  it  of 
small  ganglia,  to  the  stomach  by  the  solar  plexus,  to  the  intestines 
by  the  mesenteric,  asserting  over  all  its  initial  or  inhibitory,  always 
moderating  and  central  influence.  When  this  view  shall  have 
received  the  attention  of  true  teachers,  they  will  alter  their  curricu- 
lum in  this  wise — will  cease  to  exclusively  cultivate  the  upper  portion 
of  the  nervous  system,  and  will  bestow  a  proportionate  attention  to 
the  wants  of  the  more  central  ganglia,  and  train  the  functions  of  the 
whole  system  m  view  of  their  co-relations  and  concordance.  Then 
will  cease  to  rule,  rage,  and  ruin  the  inner  dualism  which,  instead 
of  being  created  by  Satan,  created  him.  Then  teachers  will  be  able 
to  return  service  for  service  to  physiologists,  by  demonstrating  that 
the  cause  of  the  increase  of  insanity,  indeed  of  almost  all  the  insani- 
ties, is  the  discordance,  nay,  the  antagonism,  raised  by  education, 
customs,  and  creeds  between  the  cephalic  and  the  central  parts  of 
the  nervous  circuit;  that  the  functions  disorganized,  at  first  are 
curable  at  once,  but  that  the  organs  subsequently  altered  by  accoutu- 
mance  or  shock  are  rendered  incurable.  This  we  predict,  and  sup- 
port on  the  evidence  that,  in  true  savage-life,  where  the  whole  nerv- 
ous system  is  evenly  let  alone  to  the  drifts  of  instincts,  insanity  is 
unknown ;  but  where  the  strain  on  the  mind  is  excessive,  and  the 
sympathetic  wants  ignored  or  subdued,  insanity  is  rife.     So  it  is  with 


29    

the  training  of  the  Polytechnic  School  of  Paris,  which  produces 
possibly  the  best  scholars,  certainly  more  insanity  than  any  other 
French  school. 

Unfortunately,  it  is  yet  popular,  and  may  remain  so  for  some 
time,  to  extol,  and,  alas  !  to  excite  what  is  called  the  intelligence  of 
infants.  But  if  an  infant  was  allowed  to  grow  by  his  physiological 
and  only  safe  growth,  it  would  be  seen  that  cerebral  activity  does 
not  play  the  conspicious  part  we  are  inclined  to  think  it  does  in  his 
determinations ;  that  what  we  mistake  for  his  judgments  are  his  sym- 
pathies ;  that  we  cannot  without  peril  rashly  fill  his  brain  with  im- 
pressions which  may,  or  may  not,  in  after  years,  become  the  ele- 
ments of  mental  operations ;  that,  unless  these  impressions  are  direct- 
ed toward  the  sympathetic  organs,  they  have  no  action  on  the 
eventful  feats  of  childhood,  and  almost  none  on  those  of  later  life ; 
this  for  many  reasons,  of  which  two  will  suffice. 

a.  At  this  age,  external  impressions  may  be  reflected  on  the 
cerebral  convolutions,  and  on  the  sympathetic  central  ganglia,  as 
images  of  objects  are  reflected  on  surfaces  sensitive  to  light.  But 
there  is  this  difference :  when  the  impressions  on  the  gray  matter  of 
the  cerebral  convolutions  have  become  mixed  or  defaced,  they  leave 
no  trace ;  but  when  the  impressions  have  vanished  from  the  sympa- 
thetic ganglia,  they  yet  leave  behind  such  indelible  determinations 
as  will  overrule  the  intellectual  teaching.  Supernaturalists  penetrate 
this  way  to  take  their  mortgage  on  the  coming  man  if  they  can 
pervert  this  sense ;  upright  educators  ought  to  be  able  to  train  it  in 
the  right  direction. 

J.  Another  difference  is  in  the  process  of  entrance  of  the  per- 
ceptions toward  the  cerebrum  of  the  sympathetic.  If  the  object  to 
be  perceived  by  an  infant  is  directed  toward  his  reflective  centers,  his 
effort  at  thinking  is  almost  always  too  great  for  the  object,  and,  gray- 
hound-like,  he  overleaps  what  you  wanted  him  to  grasp ;  or,  if  he 
comprehends  and  apprehends  it  right,  it  is  by  a  concentration  of 
synergy,  for  which  an  abnormal  amount  of  blood  is  accumulated  in 
the  encephalon ;  the  congestion  is  announced  by  the  color  and  swel- 
ling of  the  blood-vessels,  and  the  effort  by  a  rise  of  the  surface- 
thermometer  at  the  temples.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  objects  pres- 
ented to  his  perception  have  been  directed  toward  the  affective 
nerve-center,  their  impressions  are  more  sure  and  do  not  predispose, 
like  the  former,  to  infantile  hemiplegia  or  meningitis ;  he  feels  them 
like  a  sensation  about  the  diaphragm,  during  which  the  respiration 
may  be  somewhat  momentarily  suspended  by  the  emotion,  then  re- 
sumed deeper,  with  a  quicker  beat  of  the  heart,  and  a  blood-current 
of  an  inexpressible  happiness.  Who  has  not  kept,  at  least,  a  vague 
remembrance  of  this  state  of  our  infant  bosom  when  it  was  permitted 
to  saturate  itself,  without  admixture  of  forcing  reasons  and  reason- 
ing, with  the  emotions  produced  by  new  contacts,  new  movements, 


30    

new  colors,  new  sounds,  new  voices,  new  associations,  new  sceneries, 
new  people ;  for  instance,  the  features  of  a  new  baby  in  the  family, 
all  things  which,  touching  us  to  the  quick,  touched  us  forever.  But 
how  few  children  are  allowed  the  inenarrable  delicacies  of  this  edu- 
cation by  the  sympathies !  Some  given  up  to  pedantic  mentors ; 
some  crushed  by  home  tyranny ;  some  nursed  with  depressing 
mythologies ;  some  anaesthetized  of  noble  feelings  by  debasing  wants; 
most  of  them  rebuked  for  their  silly  eagerness  to  know  things  which 
they  can  find  out  for  themselves  as  soon  as  they  have  mastered  the 
twenty-six  symbols,  which  are  supposed  to  contain  all  knowledge, 
and  therefore  they  are  hurried  to  the  book.  And  how  few  remain, 
stray  babies,  on  the  lap  of  placid  mothers,  allowed  to  feel  their  own 
surroundings,  and  to  come  out  from  this  emotional  baptism,  poets, 
painters,  savants,  interpreters  in  their  own  language  of  mother- 
nature  !  Agassiz  began  one  of  his  most  renowned  courses  by  beg- 
ging each  of  his  pupils  to  come  to  the  opening  lesson  with  a  grass- 
hopper in  his  hand.  Why  could  we  not  begin  lower  with  infants  by 
encouraging  them  to  come  to  school  with  the  things  in  their  hands 
which  please  them  best  ? 

C,  What  we  have  said  of  the  collective  movements  of  the  infants 
in  the  Salle  d' ^syle;  of  the  power  of  automatism  on  the  produc- 
tion and  repetition  of  movements ;  of  the  aptitude  to  imitate,  which 
carries  one  child  after  another  into  the  vortex  of  the  movements  of 
the  school ;  of  the  organic  dualism  of  our  senses,  by  which  are  sup- 
plied the  elements,  and  acquired  the  habits,  of  comparison ;  of  the 
differential  impressions  made  by  the  sensations,  according  as  they  are 
directed  toward  the  sympathetic  or  toward  the  encepholon ;  of  the 
local  congestions,  and  of  the  evolution  of  heat  as  a  result  of  oxida- 
tion during  scholastic  labor:  these  elements,  though  unavoidably 
scattered  here,  can  easily  be  united  in  the  mind  of  the  reader  to  form 
what  they  really  are — the  broad  physiological  basis  of  infantile  edu- 
cation. 

Commencing  by  the  exercise  of  muscular  contractility,  we  must 
make  good  use  of  the  sympathetic  adhesion  of  the  infant  to  his 
mother.  The  transference  of  this  propensity  toward  his  mates  we 
have  witnessed  in  the  Salle  (V^syle.  Add  to  this  his  automatic 
aptitudes  to  repeat  a  movement  once  made,  to  support  these  repeti- 
tions on  rhythms,  and  to  be  impelled  by  imitation,  and  you  have  a 
perfect  living  realization  of  what  seems  impossible  in  the  abstract  — 
an  individual  without  individuality,  only  with  latent  sympathies,  that 
is  the  infant ;  and  these  are  the  means  of  training  his  first  steps  out 
of  impotent  dependence.  To  develop  his  individuality,  and  to  grad- 
ually sever  him  from  outward  supports  and  dependence,  you  have 
first  to  use  these  supports  and  connections,  so  as  to  be  able  to  drop 
them  gradually,  and  to  leave  the  child  self-supporting  enough  to 
select  his  own  independent  associations.     Such  appears  to  be  the 


31    

stadium  of  muscular  contractility  through  which  he  must  pass,  from 
automatism  and  imitation,  to  rational  and  willed  activity. 

d.  The  opening  exercises  of  the  infant-school  would  correspond 
to  these  first  physiological  indications.  In  them,  the  children  at  first 
adhere  to  each  other,  move  in  cadence,  automatically,  then  in  imita- 
tion, all  together,  with  litde  attention,  and  an  almost  indifferent 
pleasure,  in  which  the  brain  has  no  part;  a  kind  of  quiet  and  sym- 
pathetic lullaby,  not  unlike  that  which  induces  hypnotism,  leads  their 
movements,  which  in  the  course  of  the  exercises  gradually  attain  to 
natural,  healthy,  precise,  and  independent  attitudes.  Their  progres- 
sion toward  the  complete  mastery  of  the  function  of  contractility 
would  run  thus: 

The  establishment,  in  well-defined  series,  of  these  grades,  from 
automatic  to  reasoned  and  willed  exercises ;  from  general  to  special 
movements ;  from  personal  acts  (acts  relating  to  the  child)  to  object- 
ive acts  (relating  to  objects,)  &c. 

The  grouping  of  children,  according  to  some  anomaly  in  plus 
and  minus  of  their  contractile  functions,  or  to  imperfections  in  their 
organs  of  contractility,  to  correct  which  it  is  generally  sufficient  to 
institute  special  trainings.  (It  is  thus  that  the  anomaly  —  rather,  a 
disease,  chorea,  which  always  affects  one  side  more  than  the  other — 
is  almost,  invariably  prevented  by,  or  recedes  before,  an  appropriate 
muscular  training.) 

The  gradual  bringing  of  all  the  available  forces  of  contractility 
under  the  control  of  the  will ;  at  first  in  individuals,  later  in  groups, 
and  by  exercises  more  and  more  complicated. 

The  gradual  concentration  of  automatic,  initative,  and  willed 
exercises  of  contractility  m  the  hand,  in  order  to  render  it  capable 
of  executing  with  the  utmost  rapidity  and  precision  the  orders  from 
the  encephalon. 

The  elementary  training  of  both  sides  of  the  body,  and  of  both 
hands  in  particular,  m  order  to  ascertain  how  far  the  two  sides  can 
be  trusted  with  advantage  and  without  danger,  to  work  either  alter- 
nately, substitutively,  complementarily,  or  concurrently. 

We  have  pointed  out  the  importance  of  this  last  problem  at 
birth,  and,  further  on,  will  have  to  refer  to  it  m  connection  with 
professional  education ;  but  here,  at  the  start,  it  is  particularly  de- 
sirable, that  teachers  should  know,  that  the  anatomists  and  physiolo- 
gists have  brought  the  question  to  the  door  of  the  school,  therein  to 
receive  its  most  practical  solution. 

A  litde  attention  to  this  problem  discovers  in  it  two  factors, 
primary  organism  and  education.  The  effect  of  the  latter  is  con- 
tinued by  accoutumance,  whose  life-long  and  hereditary  operation 
modifies  the  former. 

14.  Symmetry  in  training. — About  organism  :    As  circulation 

(3) 


32    

supplies  the  material  for  action,  we  must  first  consider  the  differences 
in  the  canalization  of  the  arterial  blood  at  its  issue  from  the  cross  of 
the  aorta  in  man  and  in  animals,  in  order  to  find  the  exact  position 
we  occupy  in  regard  to  our  modes  of  activity.  In  this  respect,  I 
have  stated,  that  infants  generally  lie  on  their  right  sides.  This  re- 
chnation,  which  is  a  primordial  sequence  of  anatomical  structure, 
soon  becomes,  in  its  turn,  a  cause  of  exaggeration  of  the  structural 
inequality.  In  mammalia,  the  blood,  gushing  from  the  heart  through 
the  cross  of  the  aorta,  finds  its  way  up  by  different  system  of  emerg- 
ences. When  the  emergence  of  the  cephalic  arteries  from  the  cross 
of  the  aorta  is  unique,  and  its  upward  canalization  perfectly  sym- 
metrical in  its  right  and  left  bifurcations,  as  in  the  horse,  the  move- 
ments are  swift  and  harmonious,  the  temper  may  easily  become  be- 
wildered, but  the  animal  will  fight  well  only  for  love  and  in  self-de- 
fense. The  same  unique  emergence,  but  with  less  concording  bifur- 
cations, produces  the  equally  swift  but  less  symmetrical  movements 
of  the  camel  and  its  tribe. 

When  the  emergences  from  the  aorta  are  two,  lateral,  equi- 
distant from  the  apex  of  the  cross,  and  when  they  send  out  symmetric- 
al branches  toward  the  fore  limbs,  the  animal  makes  harmonious 
movements  and  is  ambidexter,  as  the  porpoise,  the  mole. 

When  the  emergences  are  again  two,  the  left  brachial  unique 
and  small,  the  right  trifurcated  for  the  brachial  and  for  the  two  ce- 
phalic arteries,  there  are  bouncing  movements  and  war-instincts,  as 
in  the  lion,  the  bear,  the  dog.  A  similar  irregularity,  with  the  ce- 
phalic arteries  emerging  nearer  to  the  aorta,  belongs  to  the  wild 
boar. 

When  the  emergences  are  three,  a  central  and  a  left  one  small, 
and  the  right  one  very  large  and  quadrifurcated,  there  is  a  mixture 
of  celerity  and  ferocity,  as  in  the  cat  and  some  dogs ;  or  an  awk- 
wardness in  celerity,  as  in  the  giraffe  and  kangaroo. 

When  the  emergences  are  three,  one  right  and  one  left  for  the 
brachial  arteries,  and  a  main  cephalic  regularly  bifurcated,  as  in  the 
elephant,  the  movements  are  harmonious,  and  the  organ  of  prehen- 
sion and  dexterity  is  central  and  unique  :  the  proboscis  is  the  hand. 
The  same  vascular  apparatus,  to  which  is  added  another  horizontal 
bifurcation  of  the  cephalic  trunk,  belongs  to  the  more  unruly  rhinoce- 
ros. 

In  man,  as  in  the  castor  and  chimpanzee,  the  emergences  from 
the  aorta  are  also  three ;  but  in  reality  the  right  one,  the  largest, 
soon  bifurcates  to  form  the  subclavian  and  the  carotid  of  this  side, 
as  to  re-establish  a  sort  of  symmetry  between  the  systems  of  ar- 
terialization  of  both  sides.  Thus,  in  man,  the  canalization  of  the  ar . 
terial  blood  toward  the  head  appears  as  a  composite  of  the  various 
systems  of  circulation  of  the  mammalia ;  not  so  symmetric  as  in  the 
horse  and  elephant ;  not  so  asymmetric  as  in  the  wild  boar  or  kang- 


38    

aroo,  but  yet  irregular  enough  in  the  hematose  of  his  two  sides  to 
make  him  one-sided  (generally  right-handed)  in  his  movements,  and 
sometimes  more  ferocious  than  is  consistent  with  his  pretensions  to 
Christianity  and  philanthropy.  It  would  result  from  this  anatomical 
survey  that  the  more  asymmetric  is  the  hematose,  the  more  irregular 
will  be  the  movements  and  the  more  bloody  the  instincts. 

What  will  physiologists  tell  us  in  their  turn  ?  They  present  a 
more  hopeful  view  of  the  case  by  demonstrating  the  action  of  educa- 
tion and  of  accoutumance,  not  only  on  the  hematose,  but  through 
the  modified  hematose,  on  the  very  form  of  the  vessels  through  which 
it  runs,  and  vice  versa.  The  economists  have  proclaimed  the  half 
of  a  great  truth  when  they  said  "The  supply  creates  the  demand." 
Physiologists  may  claim  to  have  discovered  the  other  half  of  this 
aphorism  when  we  said,  "The  demand  creates  the  supply."  Thus 
completed,  this  whole  truth  will  rule  the  reciprocal  husbanding  and 
economy  of  circulation  and  activity.  Now,  a  greater  supply  of 
blood  to  the  left  hemisphere  incites  this  hemisphere  to  more  brain- 
work,  and  the  right  side  of  the  body  to  more  muscular  work ;  but  let 
the  training  of  the  left  side  of  the  body  call  for  more  blood,  and  the 
right  hemisphere  will  soon  receive  more  blood  and  be  better  able  to 
assist  or  supplement  the  left  in  brain-work.  This  is  no  hypothesis, 
but  fact,  since,  in  naturally  left-handed  persons,  the  arteries  of  the 
right  side  of  the  head,  and  those  of  the  left  side  of  the  body,  have 
been  found  to  contain  more  blood  than  their  oppo'site ;  and  in  proof 
that  not  only  the  quantity  of  the  hematose  is  affected,  but  also  the 
form  of  the  vessels,  by  certain  modes  of  activity,  there  are  thousands 
of  pathological  specimens  showing  deformations  of  vessels  produced 
in  a  very  few  years  by  the  repetition  of  a  movement,  or  by  the  con- 
stancy of  a  vicious  attitude. 

15.  Application  to  education.  —  From  these  facts,  the  fol- 
lowing conclusions  are  forced  upon  us  : 

I  St.  The  evidence  that  no  system  in  our  organism  is  so 
amenable  as  the  circulatory  system  to  primary  diversity  of  structure 
and  to  secondary  modifications,  anomalies,  even  to  anatomical  mons- 
trosities, traceable  to  protracted  exertions  or  attitudes. 

2n(i.  The  inference  that  no  other  system  of  our  organism  is 
more  modifiable  by  an  early  and  well-planned  trainmg ;  and  that,  if 
man  can  be  rendered  more  serviceable  as  a  worker,  more  harmonious 
in  his  movements,  more  delicate  and  thorough  in  his  perceptions, 
and  more  kind  and  amiable  in  his  family  and  social  relations,  it  will, 
to  a  great  extent,  be  through  that  part  of  physiological  education 
which  tends  to  equalize,  on  both  sides  of  our  hematose,  the  oxida- 
tion of  the  tissues  and  the  evolution  of  heat  by  ustioJl,  (from  the 
Latin  urere,  to  burn,  complemented  in  comhustio/l.  —  See  the 
Manuals  of  Clinical  Thermometry.) 

Therefore  we  cannot  begin  too  early  that  equal  education  of 


34    

both  sides  of  the  body,  which,  1o  make  an  impression,  must  also  be- 
come an  accoutumance. 

The  tendency  aheady  noted  of  the  new-born  to  lie  on  the  right 
side  must  be  prudently  corrected ;  he  has  likewise  to  be  carried  in 
turns  on  the  right  and  left  arm ;  and  when  he  makes  his  first  steps, 
he  must  be  held  by  both  hands  alternately.  Then  come  the  dualist 
exercises  of  the  senses,  which  may  begin  by  the  tact,  since  children 
dearly  love  to  feel  themselves  touched  and  tickled  on  both  sides. 
The  exercises  of  alternately  hearing  and  listening  with  each  ear  come 
at  the  same  times ;  so  do  those  of  changing  the  position  of  the  child  in 
relation  to  light,  now  to  the  left,  then  to  the  right,  also  horizontally 
to,  or  higher  or  lower  than  its  angle  of  incidence ;  both  hands  partic- 
ularly must  be  impartially  educated  to  take  hold  and  let  go,  to  move 
at  will  or  at  command  each  articulation,  exercises  which  differ  from 
those  to  be  farther  described,  only  by  their  special  reference  to  ambi- 
dexterity. By  these  means  may  be  restored  to  our  race  an  inexpen- 
sive power,  more  permanent  then  steam,  and  equally  applicable  to 
mental  and  physical  labor ;  a  power,  which,  in  many  cases,  can 
double  the  products,  and  which  in  all  cases  can  save  or  economize 
the  ordinary  one-sided  powers.  By  this  restitution  to  our  children 
of  this  natural  capacity,  many  diseases  and  infirmities  will  become 
unknown  or  rare.  For  instance,  the  right  hand  would  never  become 
afflicted  with  the  telegrapher's,  seamstress's  or  writer's  palsy,  if  the 
left  hand  could  hold  the  needle  or  the  pen  when  the  right  hand  is 
tired.  Another  consequence  of  the  restoration  of  activity  to  the  left 
side  of  the  body  would  be  an  increased  activity  in  the  circulation 
and  functions  of  the  right  hemisphere.  This  would  induce  equal  or 
substitutive  mental  operations  from  both  hemispheres,  by  which  more 
continuous  learning  and  thinking  could  be  accomplished ;  and  the 
fatal  consequences  of  excessive  strain  on  the  brain,  hemorrhagy, 
embolism,  and  ramollissement  would  remain  senile  accidents  instead 
of  becoming  the  ironic  rewards  of  young  heroic  efforts.  And,  more- 
over, by  this  even  education  of  the  two  side-organs,  and  by  the  more 
equal  hematose  of  the  two  side-circulations,  which  would  follow,  the 
human  temper  and  passions  would  be  harmonized  and  subdued  to 
a  point,  which  the  mind  cannot  reach  to-day,  but  whose  social  con- 
sequences cannot  be  overestimated. 

This  is  the  part  of  the  work  to  which  anatomists  and  physiol- 
ogists invite  the  teachers.  Not  to  repeat  here  my  own  appeals,  and 
practice,  which  began  with  the  first  training  of  idiots,  in  1837 — 2>^  ; 
it  seems  but  yesterday,  that  the  lamented  Agassiz  urged  his  pupils  of 
Penikeese  Island  to  become  ambidextrous,  if  they  wanted  te  become 
good  naturalists;  and  that  my  illustrious  friend,  Brown-Sequard, 
proclaimed  at  his  Lowell  course  of  lectures  the  equal  training  of  both 
sides  in  our  children  as  an  urgent  necessity.  Since  this  was  written, 
he  delivered  another  lecture  expressly  bearing  on  this  subject  at   the 


35    

Smithsonian  Institution.  No  student  of  human  nature  can  afford  to 
ignore  this  beautiful  co/iceps  of  his :  Have  we  two  hrains  ? 
When  he  told  me  that  he  was  to  expatiate  on  this  subject,  I  hasten- 
ed to  treat  it  from  my  own  stand-point;  sure  that  if  I  heard  him,  my 
mind  would  be  subdued  by  his,  and  my  originality  absorbed  by  his 
genius. 

This  training,  contrary  to  habits,  tradition  and  heredity,  must 
begin  almost  with  life  itself;  if  not  in  the  cradle,  in  the  infant-school 
at  the  latest.  But  to  undertake  it,  it  is  necessary  to  understand  the 
place  it  occupies  in  the  general  plan  of  physiological  education ; 
there  is  a  place  for  it  in  the  series  we  have  just  surveyed,  and  prior 
to  that,  as  we  will  presently  show. 

We  will  not  stop  to  describe  the  gymnastics,  which  particularly 
inure  the  bones  and  enlarge  the  muscles ;  not  only  because  their 
description  is  entirely  foreign  to  this  work  of  either  minute  analysis, 
or  generalization,  but  because  their  operations  appear,  in  our  physiol- 
ogical plan,  subordinate  to  those  of  the  nervous  system  in  this  wise. 
The  education  of  the  muscular  system  is  founded  upon  the  nerve 
property  to  contract  muscles ;  of  contractions  to  repeat  themselves ; 
of  repetitions  to  be  amenable  of  rhythms ;  of  rhythms  to  incite  imita- 
tion ;  of  imitation  to  provoke  hke  movements  in  other  people,  or  in 
the  other  side  of  the  same  body  :  a  whole  series  of  functions,  con- 
tractility, automatism,  imitation,  dualistic  symmetry,  which  have  to 
be  developed  to  the  rank  of  working  capacities. 

Let  us  add  to  this  the  elements  of  the  education  of  the  senses ; 
the  training  of  the  faculty  of  speech  ;  that  of  the  art  of  receiving, 
storing,  and  expressing  impressions,  which  is  the  natural  gift  of  in- 
fants ;  and  we  will  not  need  books  to  fill  up  the  emptiness  of  our 
teaching,  till  the  child  is  at  least  seven  years  old. 


CHAPTER   V. 

Of  The  Senses. 

Seat  of  'Sensation;   Training  of  Special  senses;  Nature  of  impressions ;   Teaching 
with  play -things;     Object-lessons;     Training  through  physiological  culture, 

1 6.  Of  Sensation.  —  The  training  of  the  special  senses  rests 
ex  aequo  with  that  of  contractility,  at  the  treshold  of  the  infant- 
school. 

It  should  be  said  that  a  large  place  was  given  to  it  in  the 
section  of  education  at  Vienna ;  but  it  would  give  support  to  the 
dangerous  opinion  that  "to  educate  through  senses"  is  the  same 
thing  as  "to  educate  the  senses -themselves".  For  though  it  cannot 
be  denied  that  by  the  former  process  the  senses  are  indirectly  more 
or  less  improved,  it  is  true,  nevertheless,  that  they  will  hardly  ever 
receive  from  it  the  accomplished  powers  of  perception,  and  of  trans- 
ference of  images  to  the  sensonum,  which  would  accrue  from  a 
gradual  and  truly  physiological  training.  If  we  needed  a  proof  that 
the  education  of  the  senses  has  never  been  done  —  except  by  J,  R. 
Pereire,  for  the  special  sense  of  hearing  in  the  deaf-mutes ;  by  Haiiy 
for  the  sense  of  touch  in  the  blind ;  by  Itard,  for  the  savage  boy 
found  in  the  forests  of  the  Aveyron;  and  by  some  more  recent 
teachers  of  idiots  —  unless  empirically  through  object-lessons  and 
automatic  exercises — we  would  find  this  proof  in  the  Welt-:)iuS'- 
stellung-,  where  there  were  so  many  means  by  which  the  sense 
of  sight'  could  be  improved,  and  not  a  single  one  to  be  applied  to 
the  training  of  the  sense  of  touch.  This  reservation  benig  made,  we 
acknowledge  the  quantity,  variety,  and  value  of  the  objects  gathered 
to  please  and  mstruct  children  through  their  senses,  and  to  employ 
their  activity  by  some  hand-work  or  play.  These  objects  could  not 
be  arranged,  for  the  reason  assigned  above,  in  any  order  corres- 
ponding to  each  sense,  nor  to  the  ideal  they  satisfy  in  the  child,  as 
wonder,  curiosity,  imagination,  and  causality;  but  they  were  separ- 
ated as  school-appliances  and  play-things  {joujoux) ;  and  also  by 
nationalities,  the  latter  category  offering  occasion  for  curious  remarks. 


37    

Before  indulging  in  some  of  them,  let  us  signalise  a  tact  which 
dominates  all  others  in  the  use  of  objects  for  educational  purposes. 

When  sensations  penetrate  through  the  peripheric  nerves,  they 
are  directed  sometimes  by  a  self-impulse,  and  oftener  by  an  external 
one  (as  a  teacher)  toward  the  sympathetic,  or  toward  the  brain ; 
and  though  these  directions  cannot  be  said  to  be  absolutely  exclusive 
one  from  the  other,  one  of  the  two  may  be  rendered  so  prevalent 
that  it  is  physiologically  true  that  in  one  case  they  are  felt,  and  in 
the  other  they  are  reasoned.  At  this  point  of  recipience  of  im- 
pressions, it  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  in  order  not  to  commit  an 
irreparable  mistake,  to  understand  well  the  nature  of  the  impressions 
to  be  made,  and  the  psycho-physiological  aptitude  of  a  child  to 
receive  them.  In  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  impressions,  some 
phenomena  are  better  appreciated  by  our  sensitiveness  and  others  by 
our  judgment.  A  child,  misled  in  this,  will  hardly  ever  be  able  to 
retrace  his  steps  in  the  right  path,  particularly  if  he  has  been  direct- 
ed to  reason  what  he  ought  to  feel. 

In  regard  to  the  aptitudes  of  the  child,  his  capacity  for  receiving 
sympathetic  impressions  is  anterior  to  that  for  forming  rational 
judgments ;  and  if  he  is  provoked  to  reason  his  impressions  before 
he  has  been  allowed  to  be  sympathetically  moved  by  them,  his 
emotional  apparel  will  be  retrenched  from  the  circulation  of  im- 
pressions ;  and  what  may  appear  later  as  his  own  feelmgs  will  be 
others',  implanted  in  his  head,  as  he  himself  would  plant  cut  flowers 
in  sand  and  call  the  collection  his  garden. 

17.  Object-lessons.  —  In  the  hope  that  these  remarks  will 
help  us  to  comprehend  how  playthings  act  in  education,  let  us  now 
speak  of  joujoux  as  the  objects  to  give  lessons  be  excellence. 

At  first  sight,  such  a  vast  array  of  playthings  as  was  spread  on 
the  Prater  left  the  impression  of  silly  sameness.  A  second  look  dis- 
covered in  them  prrticular  characters,  as  of  national  idiosyncrasies; 
and  a  closer  examination  showed  that  these  puerilities  had  sense 
enough  in  them,  not  only  to  disclose  the  movements  of  the  mind, 
but  to  predict  what  is  to  follow. 

The  Chinese  and  Japenese  toys  are  innumerable,  as  was  to 
have  been  expected.  They  have  in  common  a  minghng  with  real 
life,  and  appear,  at  least  to  the  writer  —  a  barbarian  —  profoundly 
mortised  into  the  system  of  education  of  both  peoples;  so  much  so, 
that  it  seems  impossible  —  for  the  same  barbarian  —  to  establish  a 
line  of  demarcation  between  their  playthings  and  their  object- 
lessons,  and  particularly  between  the  images  made  to  cultivate 
humor,  to  excite  interest,  to  spread  ideas  and  cnticisms,  to  educate 
directly  through  the  accompanying  text;  the  whole  forming  a  solid 
bulk  of  toys,  preying  on  the  mind,  when  pleasing  the  senses.  In 
other  respects,  their  toys  are  more  unlike  than  we  were  prepared  to 
find  them.     Taken  in  a  block,  how  much  brighter  are  the  Japenese 


38    

toys !  Relieved  in  gold  and  the  gaudy  colors  of  the  Breughels,  their 
dolls,  single,  oftener  grouped,  are  absolutely  saucy,  rollicking  as  on 
a  spree  of  good  humor  and  naughtiness ;  but  how  much  more  sober 
in  colors,  meek  in  demeanor,  and  comprehensive  in  mien  are  the 
Chinese,  who  look  so  wise,  and  are  willing  to  tell  you  all  that  their 
personal  experience  of  sublunary  troubles  has  taught  them !  We 
have  not  often  seen,  in  the  Chinese  toys,  these  incitations  to  an 
awakening  of  curiosity  for  natural  phenomena  which  characterise 
the  Japenese.  In  this  latter,  the  application  of  the  natural  and 
mechanical  forces  to  produce  a  striking  effect  upon  the  imagination 
of  children  cannot  fail  to  determine  the  taste  of  the  next  generation 
toward  physical  sciences.  Meanwhile,  the  Chinese'  favorite  joujoux 
remain  theatrical  scenes,  where  the  family  is  treated  a  la  Moliere. 
If  toys  mean  anything,  these  tell  us  that  Peking  is  the  Paris,  and 
Yokohama  will  soon  be  the  London  or  New  York  of  the 
East. 

For  fear  that  we  may  not  find  a  more  appropriate  place,  we 
will  here  confess  a  predilection  for  the  material  art  of  these  eastern 
people  in  manufacturing  things  to  be  used  by  children.  First, 
their  play-books  are  of  a  paper  whose  tint  does  not  offend  the  eye, 
and  whose  toughness  resits  ill-usage ;  in  book-form,  but  without 
stiffness;  or  in  scroll-form,  like  the  Jewish,  they  can  be  roughly 
handled  among  ruder  playthings.  Next,  we  profess  a  true  enthu- 
siasm for  the  beauty,  adherence,  and  softness  of  the  colors  and 
varnish  employed  in  their  book-toys,  object-toys,  animal-toys, 
human-toys,  godly-toys ;  and  appreciate  the  more  the  fastness  of 
their  paint,  when  remembering  to  have  in  our  infancy  seen  a  brother, 
sister,  and  self  tattooed  with  the  colors  of  dolly ;  or  older,  to  have 
attended  to  children  sick  or  dying  from  the  ingestions  of  the  poison- 
ous pigments  of  European  toys. 

Persia,  too,  sent  beautiful  joujoux,  from  which  can  be  Inferred 
a  national  taste  for  music,  since  most  of  their  dolls  are  blowing  in 
some  instruments.  They  stand  in  groups,  like  our  itinerant  German 
performers,  but,  unlike  these  latter,  gorgeously  dressed. 

Turkey,  Egypt,  Arabia,  have  sent  no  dolls.  Do  they  make 
none,  under  the  impression,  correct  in  a  low  state  of  culture,  that 
dolls  for  children  become  idols  for  men  ?  But  Finlanders  and  Lap- 
landers, who  are  not  troubled  with  such  religious  prejudices,  give 
rosy  cheeks  and  bodies  as  fat  as  seals  to  the  dolls  which  teach  their 
children  how  happy  and  healthy  one  may  be  in  a  paradise  of  ice 
and  blubber. 

I  looked  in  vain  at  Vienna  for  playthings  of  American  manu- 
facture. Is  it  to  say  that  all  ours  are  imported  ?  certainly  not.  The 
American  toys  justify  the  rule  we  have  found  good  elsewhere,  that 
their  character  both  reveals  and  prepares  the  national  tendencies. 
Here,  the  toys  refer  the  mind  and  habits  of  children  to  home  econ- 


omy,  husbandry,  and  mechanical  labor ;  and  their  very  material  is 
durable,  mainly  wood  and  iron. 

In  wood  are  manufactured  all  the  necessaries  of  miniature 
house-keeping :  The  wooden-buckets,  chairs,  sofas  and  other  scroll- 
work are  unequaled  any  where  in  delicacy  of  shape  and  freshness  of 
color;  and  the  tall  pine,  never  before  looked  m  the  vastness  of 
Michigan,  must  hear  its  pith  ring  for  joy,  under  the  stroke  of  the  axe, 
which  prepares  its  coming  into  thousands  of  new  lives  among  lively 
children.  But  now,  Connecticut  and  New  Jersey  are  already  famed 
for  their  founderfes  of  pygmy  stoves,  safes,  plows,  presses,  imple- 
ments, and  electric  or  steam  machineries,  which  by  thousands  are 
issued  every  afternoon  from  the  powdered  charcoal  floors.  For 
ductility,  softeness  of  contours,  precision,  and  fire-coloring  they 
defy  all  competition.  Half  a  million  worth  of  these  toys  has  beeni 
exported  in  1877  ;  and  their  home  consumption  is  valued  at  several: 
millions  of  dollars.  But  this  value  is  microscopic  compared  to  the. 
value  of  good  habits  which  they  inculcate  in  our  children  compared 
to  the  flimsy  aspirations  incubated  by  soldiers-toys,  lewd  dolls  &c.  o£ 
foreign  manufacture. 

So,  from  childhood,  every  people  has  its  sympathies  expressed' 
or  suppressed,  and  set  deeper  in  its  flesh  and  blood  than  scholastic 
ideas.  To  make  a  long  story  short — for  what  a  pretty  and  philosophr 
ical  book  could  be  written  on  toys  alone — let  us  now  see  those 
brought  to  the  Danube  from  both  sides  of  the  Rhine. 

The  French  toy  represents  the  versatility  of  the  nation:,,  touch- 
ing every  topic,  grave  or  grotesque,  intentional  agent  of  sympathetic 
education.  Paris  was  once  the  arsenal  of  infantile  arms  aaid  armors ; 
now  from  Berlin  come  the  long  trains  of  artillery,  reginaents  of  lead, 
horse  and  foot,  on  moving  tramways ;  but  from  the  Hartz  and  the 
Alps  still  issue  these  wooden  herds,  more  characteristic  of  the  dull 
feelings  of  their  makers  than  of  the  instincts  of  the  animals  they  are 
intended  for.  France,  no  less  true  to  her  old  love,  has  made  dolls 
for  the  western  world  since  Henry  IV.  brought  them  .from  Florence 
with  their  persecuted  and  famished  makers.  But  will  she  keep  even 
that  superiority  with  rulers  who  say  they  have  not  yet  killed  work- 
men enough— must  make  another  saignee,  &c.  ?  Her  doll-makers 
were  the  initiators  of  fashion  for  the  world.  If  they  are  killed  or 
scattered,  where  will  the  genius  of  tast  in  handicraft  settle  ? 

This  art  of  the  artisan,  ars  vulgaris,  possibly,  not  certainly 
inferior  to,  but  more  extensive  than,  the  beciUX-arts,  is  taught 
from  the  cradle,  with  toys  at  first,  and  by  graduations  commens- 
urate to  the  genius  of  childhood.  The  children  who  have  no  toys 
seize  realities  very  late,  and  never  from  ideals.  The  nations  rendered 
famous  by  their  artists,  artisans,  and  idealists  have  supplied  their 
infants  with  many  toys ;  and  as  there  is  more  philosophy  and  poetry 


40    

in  a  single  doll  than  in  thousands  of  cherished  books,  let  us  see 
how  this  dispised  thing,  a  doll,  a  toy,  a  joujou,  acts  so  important 
a  part  in  human  destinies. 

Toys  are  intermediate  means  of  experience  between  the  great 
realities  of  life  and  the  smallness  of  the  child.  Things  in  general 
are  so  disproportionate  to  his  stature,  so  far  from  his  organs  of  pre- 
hension, so  much  above  his  horizontal  line  of  vision,  so  much 
ampler  than  his  immediate  surroundings,  that  there  is,  between  him 
and  all  these  big  things,  a  gap  to  be  filled  only  by  a  microcosm  of 
playthings,  which  give  him  his  first  object-lessons.  In  proof  of 
which  let  him  see  a  lady  richly  dressed,  he  hardly  notices  her ;  let 
him  see  a  doll  in  similar  attire,  he  will  be  ravished  with  ecstasy.  As 
if  to  show  that  it  was  the  disproportion  of  the  sizes  which  unfitted 
him  to  notice  the  lady,  the  larger  he  grows  the  bigger  he  wants  his 
toys,  till,  when  his  wish  reaches  to  life-sizes,  good-by  to  the  trump- 
ery, and  onward  with  realities.  But  before  he  reached  this  point, 
toys  did  him  good  service.  We  mean  if  they  were  offered  with  due 
regard  to  his  development ;  if  they  were  not  at  the  outset  prema- 
turely used  to  educate  the  senses;  and  if  the  natural  play  of  the 
child's  emotional  impressions  had  not  been  interfered  with  by  peda- 
gogic reasonings.  If  these,  and  other  like  blunders  of  eagerness, 
blended  with  stupidity,  have  been  avoided  by  the  toy-givers,  the 
infant  will  have  received  from  his  toys  these  affective  emotions  of 
pleasure  or  pain,  of  sense  of  harmony  or  discordance,  of  love  or 
antipathy,  which  will  characterize,  as  a  baptism,  his  awakening 
moral-self,  and  his  morality  forever. 

And  to  obtain  this  incalculable  boon,  what  is  needed  ?  Let 
him  alone  with  his  toys,  and  watch,  and  guess,  if  you  can,  by  what 
inroads  and  outroads  the  communion  between  the  doll  and  the  child 
is  accomplished.  The  fullness  of  heart,  and  thankfulness  for  a 
bright  present,  make  room  for  the  calmer  sense  of  ownership  which 
a  child  identifies  with  manual  possession.  He  does  not  understand 
the  idea  of  property,  but  feels  it  in  his  grasp;  he  never  experi- 
enced this  feeling  about  his  garments ;  but  the  universe  of  children 
covet  his  toys,  they  shall  not  have  them ;  he  grows  serious.  Once 
his  possession  assured,  the  child  endows  it  with  all  the  qualities  of 
an  ideal,  and  devotes  himself  to  it  as  to  a  reality.  True  to  this  sym- 
pathetic conception — though  his  mind  knows  it  to  be  false,  he — 
who  never  before  looked  into  the  futnre — opens  this  blank  book  of 
human  imagination,  and  writes  on  it  all  sorts  of  contingencies,  of 
which  the  toy  is  the  magic  spring  and  center;  if  a  dog,  they  go 
hunting  together ;  a  cottage,  it  is  filled  with  playmates ;  a  cart,  it  is 
made  to  run ;  a  horse,  to  ride ;  a  hen,  to  lay  eggs ;  paper 
flowers,  to  blossom;  wax  fruit,  to  ripen;  dolly  won't  learn,  is  pun- 
ished, gets  sick,  dies,  has  impressive  funerals,  &c.  Softened  by  the 
diversity  and  sincerity  of  these  emotions ;  needing  a  partner  in  some 


41    

of  these  plays,  and  wishing  to  judge  of  others  at  a  distance,  the 
child  relaxes  his  grasp,  and  consents,  for  love,  sympathy,  or  other- 
wise, to  let  a  brother  play  with  his  things ;  the  door  of  generosity  is 
ajar,  an  opportune  example  of  your  own  liberality,  without  ostenta- . 
tion,  will  throw  it  wide  open.  Thus,  this  world  of  toys  suscitates  in 
the  child  a  corresponding  world  of  emotions  and  a  cyclopedia  of 
ideas.  Take  away  the  doll,  you  erase  from  the  heart  and  head 
feelings,  images,  poetry,  aspiration,  experience,  ready  for  applica- 
tion to  real  life.  The  Egyptians  would  not  suffer  the  dead  to  retire 
forever  without  their  dolls ;  must  we  not  be  as  merciful  to  our  in- 
fants ? 

But  soon,  for  our  child,  the  plaything  deteriorates,  or,  compared 
to  newer  ones  loses  its  prestige ;  is  looked  upon  coldly,  then  skep- 
tically. What  is  it  after  all  ?  To  form  it,  how  do  the  pieces  hold 
together  ?  And  how  is  he  to  know  but  by  taking  them  apart  ?  Away 
they  go.     The  mystery  is  solved,   but  the  poetry  of  the  toy  is  gone. 

Now  for  the  reality.  Having  learned  by  the  destruction  of  his 
toy  that  thmgs  are  made  of  parts,  he  is  ready  to  distinguish  in  objects 
their  parts  and  properties,  and  to  take  analytical  object-lessons. 
Here  the  teacher  must  bear  in  mmd  that  cramming  with  objects  is 
as  bad  as  with  books. 

Before  making  some  remarks  on  these  lessons,  this  disquisition 
on  toys  must  be  excused  upon  the  plea  that  they  speak  to  the  feel- 
ings when  the  mind  is  not  yet  open  to  reason ;  that  books  cannot 
teach  what  toys  inculcate  ;  that  the  nations  who  had  the  most  toys 
had,  too,  more  mdividuality,  idealism,  and  heroism;  and  that  if  you 
tell  what  your  children  play  with,  we  can  tell  what  sort  of  women 
and  men  they  will  be.  Then  let  us  have  toys  instead  of  books,  in 
the  Physiological  Infant-School ;  and  let  this  Republic  soon  make 
the  toys  which  will  raise  the  moral  and  artistic  character  of  her 
children,  as  much  as  the  toys  of  the  South  Americans  have  lower- 
ed their  race  by  the  substantiation  of  base,  bigoted  and  bloody  in- 
stincts. This  is  not.  all  we  have  to  say  about  toys,  dolls,  images; 
but  the  rest  will  come  more  appropriately  in  another  part.  If  we 
have  helped  to  restore  to  playthings  their  place  in  education  —  a 
place  which  assigns  them  the  principal  part  in  the  development 
of  human  sympathies  —  we  can  now  put  in  the  hands  of  children 
the  objects  whose  impressions  will  reach  their  minds  more  particularly. 

In  the  Infant-School,  object-lessons  will  present  themselves 
under  two  aspects :  that  of  studying  and  that  of  making  objects. 

To  study  objects,  is  to  observe  their  arrangement  and  their 
properties,  as  form,  color,  odor,  movement ;  to  learn  their  actual 
usage ;  and  to  infer  their  possible  applications. 

To  make  an  object,  is  to  select  the  parts,  or  attributes,  which 
enter  in  it ;  to  put  them  in  due  rapport,  and  the  whole  in  suitable 
or  working  order. 


42    

One  of  these  lessons  complements  the  other;  they  represent 
the  Janus-aspect  of  our  knowledge ;  nothing  is  thoroughly  known 
if  not  learned  by  that  double  process ;  but  double  does  not  mean 
confounded  ;  the  physiological  teacher  will  keep  them  distinct,  yet 
use  them  by  apposition,  because  his  aim  is  not  only  to  give  object- 
lessons,  but  to  develop,  now  one  function,  now  another ;  primarily 
aiming  at  personal  development,  secondarily  at  knowledge.  In  the 
physiological  school,  the  ohservation  of  objects  will  particularly  be 
subservient  to  the  training  of  the  senses,  and  the  making  of  ob- 
jects will  mainly  be  regulated  by  the  wants  of  the  hand  to  execute, 
and  of  the  mind  to  conceive  ideals ;  therefore  confusion  between 
the  two  process  becomes  impossible. 

Such  is,  at  this  point,  the  programme  of  the  infant  physiological 
school.  It  embraces  the  direct  and  special  training  of  each  sense, 
and  the  reflex  training  of  the  mind,  and  of  the  creative  activity 
through  the  senses. 

To  unfold  this  curriculum,  we  shall  be  obliged  sometimes  to 
sacrifice  the  unity  of  its  plan  to  the  multiplicity  of  the  details  to  be 
brought  into  relief.  At  other  times  we  may  not  be  able  to  forcibly 
mark,  in  their  places,  the  mental  connections  of  the  plan;  for,  as 
man  is  a  unit,  every  part  of  him,  or  function  of  his,  which  we  con- 
sider separately,  by  a  modus  loguendi,  is  intimately  connected 
with  all  the  others  by  the  modus  vivendi,  and  the  reader  has  to 
reunite  what  the  writer  has  to  dissect.  In  the  present  juncture,  for 
instance,  he  will  have  to  connect  what  has  been  said  of  the  sympa- 
thetic— not  as  a  regulator  of  nervous  action  between  the  viscera,  but 
as  a  center  of  impressions  as  far  back  as  the  foetal  period — with  what 
he  will  have  to  say  of  the  education  of  the  senses.  Another 
necessity  of  the  subject  will  be,  that,  after  explaining  the  elements 
of  the  education  of  the  senses,  and  their  bearing  on  the  functions 
of  the  mind  and  of  useful  contractility,  which  properly  belong  to  the 
infant-school,  the  force  of  the  idea  may  oblige  him  to  carry  it  into 
the  special  schools,  where  the  teaching  rests  almost  entirely  on  the 
training  of  one  sense;  in  the  primary,  and  sometimes  into  the 
higher  and  professional  schools,  in  order  to  demonstrate  how,  from 
the  cultivation  of  the  roots — ganglia  of  the  sensory  nerves — branch, 
in  all  directions,  skill  and  creative  genius. 

Here  must  be  brought  prominently  the  idea  already  expressed, 
that  one  thing  is  to  use  the  senses  in  education,  and  another,  to  edu- 
cate the  senses,  directly,  singly  or  collectively.  This  distinction 
brings  us  back  to  the  primogenial  fact,  that  the  Ancients  were  great 
masters  in  muscular  gymnastics.  It  is  but  recently  that  the  training 
of  the  senses  has  been  made  the  aim  and  object  of  education.  It 
was  begun,  not  to  improve  the  general  education,  but  to  fulfill 
special  indications  in  the  education  of  children  afflicted  with  sen- 
sorial deficiencies,  namely   the   deaf-mute,  the  blind,  the  idiot.     To 


43    

operate  the  transference  of  the  methods,  of  training  the  senses 
of  these  unfortunates  into  the  infant  physiological  school,  we  must 
first  study  these  methods. 


44    --■ 


EDUCATION   OF    THE    DEAF  AND  MUTE. 


Introduction. 

Schools  for  the  deaf  and  mute  ;    Universal  sympathy  with  the  deaf  and  mute  ; 
Instructing  mutes  ;  History  of  the  schools  and  methods. 

"La  methode  est  la  qualite  dominante  de  recrivain 
fran9ais."  Voltaire,  (Essai  sur  Milton.) 

18.  Schools.  When  we  enter  a  school  of  blind  children,  we 
feel  their  irretrievable  loss  of  sight,  and,  naturally  enough,  we  at 
once  try  to  make  them  touch  what  they  cannot  see.  This  move- 
ment is  so  direct  and  spontaneous,  that  one  is  surprised,  upon  reflec- 
tion, that  it  did  not  sooner  lead  to  educational  schemes,  in  which  the 
touch,  concentrated  in  the  hand,  would  have  taken  the  place  of  the 
regard  (look)  m  their  intellectual  and  professional  training.  But  the 
question  was  not  only  one  of  physiology,  viz,  that  of  substituting 
one  sense  for  another  in  the  act  of  perceiving  the  outward  world ; 
it  was  also  one  of  progressive  morality,  by  which  men  become  more 
and  more  enlightened  upon  the  point  of  their  duty  toward  the 
unfortunate  :  a  moral  sense  of  more  recent  growth  than  many 
imagine ;  since  in  Latin  there  is  not  even  a  single  word  to  express 
the  sense  of  humanity,  the  idea  of  being  humane,  and  the  like* 
But  as  soon  as  this  moral  sense  began  to  be  felt,  it  extended  widely 
its  sphere  of  action,  and  seems  now  incapable  of  being  anaesthesied 
by  egotism. 

Moved  by  the  same  feeling,  when  we  visit  a  school  of  deaf 
and  mute  children,  we  are  acted  upon,  however,  by  a  different  mode 
of  sensory  impressions.  Unwillingly  or  unwittingly,  we  speak  to 
them  often  quite  aloud ;  for,  though  we  are  aware  of  the  cause  and 
reality  of  their  mutism,  we  cannot  at  once  realize  its  irretrievableness. 
We  perceive  the  silence  of  the  deaf-mute,  but  we  do  not  feel  it  fated 
in  the  irrevocable  manner  which  strikes  us  in  the  cecity  of  tht 
blind ;  because  an  inward  warning  makes  us  feel  that  surdity  is  a 
radical  and  primordial  infirmity,  which  can  be  obviated  by  opening 
some  other  channel  of  perception  of  the  speech  instead  of  the  lost 
hearing. 


45    

This  secret  intuition  of  the  problem  of  the  speech  in  the  child, 
mute  only  in  consequence  of  deafness,  has  preceded  our  actual 
knowledge  on  the  subject,  helped  to  acquire  it,  and  has  often  sup- 
ported the  failing  hopes  of  the  teachers  and  friends  of  the  mute. 
To  this  consciousness  is  due  the  long  series  of  trials  —  apparently 
isolated  by  the  old  rule  of  the  secret  among  savants  — 
of  P.  Ponce,  Bonnet,  Wallis,  Amman,  Pereire,  Heinicke; 
and  now  made  public,  according  to  modern  ethics,  by  M.  M.  Hill, 
Hirsch,  Saegert,  Linnartz,  Kratz,  Cyrille,  Van  der  Wielen,  Buxton, 
Greenberger  and  Magnat ;  Misses  Hull,   Rogers,  Trask,  and  others. 

Hence  the  problem  of  instructing  the  deaf  to  speak  has  lost 
much  of  its  natural  difficulties  by  the  progess  of  physiological  educa- 
tion, and  much  of  its  mystery  by  the  impartial  history  of  the  pre- 
ceding schools,  and  by  the  frank  exibition  of  the  new  methods  and 
of  their  living  results.  However  it  would  not  be  right  to  say  that 
we  have  come  to  a  consensus  in  that  matter  ? 

Among  the  schools  which  teach  speech,  there  are  yet  discre- 
pancies mostly  due  to  their  origin,  some  tending  to  be  smoothed 
away  by  free  contact  and  discussion,  others  due  to  the  inner  genius 
of  the  different  languages,  and  whose  disappearance,  to  make  room 
for  a  fallacious  uniformity,  would  breed  evil.  But  between  these 
schools  and  those  which  pretend  to  express  all  ideas  by  pantomimes, 
there  is  no  possible  fusion ;  it  is  all  struggle ;  there  will  be  a  victor 
and  a  victim ;  one  or  the  other  must  disappear  by  absorption. 
The  contending  parties  are  the  schools  of  mutism,  large,  numerous, 
and  supported  by  states  or  rich  corporations ;  and  the  schools  of 
speech,  which  have  fewer  pupils,  smaller  endowments,  and  a  staff 
whose  support  is  principally  the  intelligent  knowledge  of  their  sub- 
ject and  the  heroism  of  their  object. 

During  almost  a  century,  the  schools  of  mutism  operated,  and 
spread  their  methode  des  signes  far  and  wide.  Now,  the  schools 
of  the  speech  begin  to  gain  strength  and  ground  in  their  turn.  They 
have  elucidated  and  improved  their  methods,  and  secured  new 
locations,  or  conquered  old  ones,  as  Antwerp,  Brussels,  London, 
Geneva,  Jacksonville,  Groningen,  Milan,  Paris,  Liverpool.  Frora 
this  we  can  see  that  the  magnitude  of  the  philosophical  problem  is 
equalled  by  the  extent  of  the  battle-field,  and  can  foresee  that  the 
interests  engaged  therein  will  extend  far  beyond  geographical  limits. 

Our  attention  is  first  drawn  to  the  respective  positions  and 
physiognomies  of  the  schools  of  speech.  There  were  three  of  them  : 
the  Hollando-German,  the  Spanish- French,  and  the  Anglo-Ameri- 
can, each  t\\'inlike. 

The  origin  of  the  first  two  is  enrobed  in  that  secrecy  which  was 
the  dress  of  sciences  in  former  times,  and  which  now  renders  it  diffi- 
cult to  retrace  the  delineations  of  their  infancy.  But  now  the  three 
schools  are   almost  equally    vested   with   the  radiance  of  publicity, 


46    

which  permits  us  to  see  and  describe  their  actual  form,  gait  and 
tendency.  Therefore  we  are  allowed  to  represent  to  our  o\<^n  mind 
these  fair  creations  of  other  minds  as  coming  out  from  obscure 
grottoes  inwardly  connected,  whose  march  is  parallel  rather  than 
divergent,  with  a  marked  tendency  to  converge  toward  a  brighter 
point,  which  the  eye  can  already  determine  ahead,  where  the  three 
will  soon  form  a  strong  and  harmonious  group.  When  arrived  there, 
these  schools  will  have  conquered  the  future  of  the  physiological 
method  of  teaching  deaf  and  dumb  children  to  speak,  and,  through 
the  fullness  of  the  written  and  spoken  language,  of  educating  them 
like  other  children. 


47 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Hollando- German  School. 

History;  Extent  and  character  of  this  school;     Success  of  the  method;    Collective 
Teaching;    Conclusion. 

19.  History.  About  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, Dr.  Amman  published,  in  x\msterdam,  his  two  treatises  ^^Sur- 
d US  LoQue?is"  sind  '' Dissertatio  de  Loquela'\  by  which  he  let 
men  know  that  he  was  capable  of  teaching  the  deaf  and  mute  to 
speak,  but  m  which  he  says  very  litde  about  his  method  of  doing  it. 
On  this  subject.  Dr.  Hirsch,  of  Rotterdam,  says,  in  his  "Souvenirs*' , 
p.  51 :  "If  we  ask  what  Amman  was  doing  to  give  speech  to  his 
pupils,  how  he  was  developing  their  minds  and  hearts,  how  he 
applied  the  speech  to  other  teachings,  we  find  these  books  absolutely 
mute."  In  consequence  of  the  law  of  secrecy  prevalent  at  his 
time,  Amman  left  neither  school  nor  disciple,  but  the  mother-idea, 
which  Heinicke  seized  upon  at  the  call  of  Buftbn.  But  Heinicke 
himself  published  no  method,  and  left  only  the  pupils  who  had 
helped  him  in  his  school  of  Leipsic.  Those  initiated  teachers  began 
only  after  his  death  to  disseminate  his  ideas,  from  which,  by  free 
discussion  and  open  practice,  our  contemporaries  have  disengaged 
and  embodied  the  principles  of  the  Hollando- German  school.  This 
school  is  now  represented  by  four  veterans,  whom  we  shall  name 
in  token  of  respect,  by  rank  of  seniority  :  Hill,  of  Weissenfels ; 
Hirsch,  of  Rotterdam ;  Janke,  of  Dresden ;  and  Saegert,  of  Berlin, 
and  by  many  other  talented  men,  whose  names  ought  to  have  their 
place  here,  as  connected  with  some  improvement  of  the  theory  or 
practice  of  their  art. 

20.  Extent.  This  school  teaches  speech  to  hundreds  of  mute 
children,  from  Zurich  to  Vienna,  from  Breslau  to  Cologne,  from 
Kbnigsberg  to  Brussels,  and  even  in  England  and  America.  (We  have 
a  branch  of  it  in  Broadway,  New  York.)  It  may  be  characterized  by 
tts  dominant  feature,  which  is  the  simplest  means  of  classifying 
methods.  We  found  that  the  dominant  feature  of  the  HoUando- 
German  school  of  teaching  speech  is  "imitation".  Imitation  is  not 
its  only  means ;  it  is  its  principal  means,  the  one  by  which,  there- 
fore, it  may  be  represented  as  a  school,  and  difterentiated  from 
others. 

This  character  is  pretty  well  defined  in  the  institution  of  Lieg- 


48    

nitz.  This  school  looks  poor  enough,  but  is  supplied  with  five  com- 
petent teachers  for  eighteen  girls  and  thirty-two  boys.  The  director, 
Mr.  Kratz,  takes  hold  of  the  new-comers,  and  teaches  them  at 
once  to  speak,  mainly  by  imitation,  without  forgetting  to  communi- 
cate to  their  hands  during  the  lesson  the  powerful  vibrations  of  his 
chest.  "When  I  have  thus  given  them  a  feeling  of  what  the  emis- 
sion of  the  voice  must  be,  with  a  certain  amount  of  practice,  any 
one  of  my  teachers  is  good  enough  for  them,"  says  M.  Kratz.  It 
is  by  this  faith  in  his  method  and  by  his  devotion  to  his  pupils  that 
he  holds  the  first  rank  in  his  school,  chief  in  the  labor  as  well  as 
official  head ;  no  carput  mortuum-  The  same  eager  interest  is 
observable  in  M.  Linartz,  director  of  the  school  of  Aix-la-Chapelle, 
and  in  others  also. 

I  have  said  that  immitation  is  the  main  character  of  the 
Hollando- German  method ;  we  must  now  observe  the  changes  or 
modifications  this  method  undergoes,  without  ceasing  to  be  itself, 
when  passing  in  its  application  from  one  institution  to  another ;  from 
Liegnitz  to  Brussels,  for  instance. 

M.  Kratz  commences  the  teaching  of  speech  by  the  guttural 
sounds ;  by  those  whose  origin  is  the  more  internal  or  deepest. 
Brother  Cyrille,  of  Brussels,  commences  by  the  labials,  whose  sounds 
are  of  the  most  outward  formation ;  progressing  from  the  dentals 
and  palatals  inward  and  downward.  Can  the  cause  of  this  inversion 
of  processes  in  the  same  method  be,  that  the  French  language, 
taught  by  the  latter  teacher,  is  altogether  more  spoken  by  the 
external  organs  than  the  German  ?  Facing  this  problem,  the  writer 
felt  quite  unable  to  solve  it.  How  much  we  desired  in  particular 
to  appreciate  the  modifications  the  method  undergoes,  when  in 
practice  it  passes  from  the  school  of  the  Frere  Cyrille  in  Brussels  to 
that  of  brother  Van  der  Wielen  in  Antwerp  ;  both  masters  educated 
at  the  school  of  M.  Hirsch,  of  Rotterdam,  but  one  teaching  his 
pupils  to  speak  in  French,  the  other  in  Flemish.  Here  we  were  at 
the  intersecting  point  of  the  guttural  languages  of  the  north  and 
of  the  middle-buccal  ones  of  Central  Europe,  and,  by  mere  ignor- 
ance, were  denied  the  satisfaction  of  solving  this  fine  complicated 
problem  of  philology,  physiology,  and  education.  All  that  we  could 
seize  of  it  is,  if  we  are  not  mistaken,  that,  ist,  The  exercises 
of  speech,  as  we  heard  them  made  in  French  and  in  Flemish — later 
in  German  — ^  seemed  to  act  dift'erently  on  the  chest ;  2d,  The  more 
the  voice  taught  to  the  mute  is  guttural,  the  more  the  chest  expands 
in  its  exercise;  3d,  The  teaching  begun  by,  or  longer  persisted  in 
the  gutturals,  gives  the  children  a  stronger  but  rather  harsh  voice ; 
4th,  The  children  who  exercise  their  chest  the  most  look  hardier  and 
stronger  than  those  who  do  it  less;  so  m  the  same  ratio  are  they 
more  free  of  pythisis  and  insidious  pheumonia,  which  in  the  schools 
of  mutism  are  the  wolf  in  the  sheepfold. 


49    

21.  Success  of  the  method.  In  the  Hollando- German 
school  all  the  children  learn  to  speak,  and  do  speak,  .except  the  few 
whose  organs  of  speech  are  paralyzed,  and  those  who  being  idiots 
besides,  could  no  more  be  taught  by  the  method  of  signs  or  by 
writing  alone.  But  the  percentage  of  true  idiocy  is  not  larger  among 
the  deaf-mutes  than  among  ordinary  children,  and  paralysis  of  the 
organs  of  speech  is  generally  consequent  upon  infantile  convulsions 
and  has  no  necessary  connection  with  the  organic  causes 
of  surdi-mutity.  "It  is  demonstrated",  said  Dr.  Matthias,  of  Fned- 
berg,  in  1858,  "that  the  vices  of  the  vocal  organs  are  no  more  fre- 
quent in  the  deaf  than  in  the  hearing  child;  the  organ  of  audition 
being  entirely  independent  of  the  organs  of  speech,  which,  if  found 
stiffened,  are  rendered  so  by  inaction."  M.  Saegert  had  already 
stated,  in  1856,  in  his  remarkable  Report  on  the  instruction  of  deaf 
and  mute  children,  that  "ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  these 
children  have  well-formed  organs  of  speech ;  they  will  learn  to 
speak,  if  their  sight  is  good  and  their  touch  delicate ;  the  more  or 
less  probability  of  success  depends  entirely  upon  the  capacity  of 
their  teachers."  Since  these  men  of  great  authority  have  pro- 
nounced their  judgment,  after  long  professorships,  or  inspections, 
the  practice  of  more  than  forty  schools  has  confirmed  their  conclu- 
sions. In  all  the  Hollando-German  schools,  instruction  is  communi- 
cated in  the  national  language,  written  or  spoken  ;  the  language  of 
signs  and  the  manual  alphabet  being  excluded.  M.  W.  Hirsch,  the 
apostle  of  the  Dutch  schools,  was  never  tired  of  saying,  where  he 
surperseded  the  signs  by  the  voice,  in  Liege,  Brussels,  &c.,  that 
"the  worst  methods  are  the  mixed  ones." 

Under  such  masters,  the  practice  of  teaching  speech  is  every- 
where extremely  simple.  The  most  competent  teacher  takes  the 
new  pupils,  as  has  been  stated,  one  by  one,  two  by  two,  and  soon 
more  at  a  time ;  and  placing  himself  before  a  strong  light  in  good 
conditions  of  directness,  horizontality,  attention,  and  mutual  desire 
of  doing  well,  he  shows  them  how  he  moves,  and  how  he  can  dis- 
place at  will  the  organs  which  are  used  m  articulation ;  how  he  in- 
spires and  expires  at  will  great  volumes  of  air,  which  will  soon  be 
rendered  strident  by  vibrations,  which  produce  the  vocal  sounds. 
This  first  part  of  the  study  is  intrusted  to  the  sight ;  the  child  imi- 
tates what  he  sees.  When  the  articular  movements  aie  thus  made 
easy,  and  when  the  silent  air  is  harmoniously  expired  in  useful  quan- 
tities, the  vibrations  of  the  sonorous  voice  have  to  be  demonstrated. 
This  demonstration  can  hardly  be  made  by  the  sight,  because  it 
takes  place  in  such  cavities  as  the  eye  cannot  reach.  It  is  then, 
therefore,  that  the  touch  of  the  child  must  have  been  trained,  and 
ought  to  be  ready  to  perceive  the  vibrations  of  the  organs  in  the  act 
of  speech,  so  that  he  can  imitate  them ;  and  imitating  the  several 
vibrations  he  cannot  fail  to  utter  the  identical  sounds  they  give  rise 


50    

to ;  that  is  to  say,  he  speaks.  Thus  are  acquired,  almost  separately, 
the  three  elements  :  position  of  the  parts,  expiration  of  air,  and  the 
muscular  vibration ;  the  result,  necessarily,  is  speech.  We  say 
necessarily,  since  the  slightest  change  in  one  of  these  three  factors 
unavoidably  modifies  either  the  articulation,  the  volume,  or  the  thrill 
of  the  voice.  This  reunion,  or  harmonious  melting  of  these  fac- 
tors of  the  speech,  position,  expiration,  vibration,  is  the  key  to  the 
teaching  of  the  language.  At  this  important  point,  whatever  be  the 
method  in  use,  the  teacher  owes  great  attention  to  his  task ;  for  he 
will  meet  there,  as  in  the  subsoil  upon  which  he  intends  to  raise  a 
monument,  many  individual  particularities  (idiosyncrasies),  which 
practice  alone  finds  out,  and  personal  combat  eradicates. 

2  2.  Collective  teaching. — The  intimate  character  of  this 
teaching  permitted  the  friends  and  professors  of  mutism  to  spread 
the  scarecrow  idea  that,  to  teach  the  deaf  to  speak,  as  many  teach- 
ers as  scholars  were  needed.  They  were  simply  calumniating  a 
theory  to  do  away  with  a  reproachful  practice.  The  truth  is,  that 
after  this  initial  period,  the  theory  and  practice  of  the  art,  though 
yet  somewhat  discrepant  in  difterent  schools,  have  this  in  common, 
that,  after  the  elements  of  the  speech  have  been  severally  produced 
and  corrected,  the  sum,  synthesis,  or  spoken  language  may  be  and 
is  actually  taught — shall  we  say — collectively,  or,  using  a  pleonastic 
expression,  by  a  single  teacher  to  a  group  of  children.  This  collec- 
tive teaching  is  so  well  classified  in  Holland  and  Germany  that  the 
composition  and  the  form  of  the  groups  are  almost  stereotyped  by 
experience.  The  group  is  a  class  of  speech,  if  you  please  to  call  it 
so,  but  it  is  more  than  that  on  account  of  its  elliptic  shape.  The 
master,  standing  at  the  head  of  an  oval  table,  faces  the  light,  and 
the  children,  standing  too,  surround  the  table,  all  looking  into  his 
mouth.  There  may  be  six,  eight,  or  many  more  in  the  group.  The 
less  experienced  stand  directly  opposite  the  master,  and,  gradually 
making  room  for  new-comers-,  they  stand  aside  to  learn  also  to  read 
the  speech  upon  its  most  external  and  lateral  muscular  movements. 

Besides,  this  collective  teaching  of  the  speech  soon  becomes 
interwoven  with  those  of  writing  and  reading,  with  lessons  on  draw- 
ings and  objects,  and  other  educational  matters,  in  the  order  in  which 
they  are  presented  to  ordinary  children.  In  this  manner,  speech 
becomes,  concurrently  with  writing,  the  ordinary  form  of  teaching; 
otherwise  illustrated  by  examples,  drawings,  figures,  as  circumstance 
brings  them  forth.  It  has  been  said  that  this  was  the  uniform  prac- 
tice ;  for  indeed  we  cannot  call  two  improvements,  to  be  found  in 
the  northern  schools,  "diversitties  of  method."  One  is  the  series  of 
admirable  drawings  of  M.  Hill,  of  Weissenfels,  in  which  every  car- 
toon represents  familiar  objects,  grouped  according  to  the  order  of 
organs  moved  to  pronounce  their  names,  and  which  help  so  much 
in  the  lessons  of  speech  that  they  can  be  found  even  in  the  Ameri- 


can  schools  for  idiots ;  the  second  improvement  is  the  painting  o 
all  the  tables  and  the  accessible  part  of  the  walls,  as  blackboards, 
on  which  to  write  and  to  rub  out,  as  ideas  fly,  the  incidental 
teaching. 

23.  Conclusion. — A  few  remarks,  apparently  disconnected, 
but  really  united  into  the  main  body  of  principles,  are  yet  necessary 
to  complement  the  impression  made  by  the  Hollando-German 
school.  I  will  express  them  as  they  come  to  my  mind,  without 
pretense  to  a  systematic  arrangement. 

In  this  thickly  populated  and  parsimonious  country,  the 
schools  for  the  deaf  and  for  the  blind  are  sometimes  contiguous,  and 
managed  by  the  same  director.  This  plan  serves  several  purposes. 
For  instance,  under  it  the  two  classes  of  invalids  are  rendered  capa- 
ble of  helping  each  other.  This  reciprocity  of  offices  may  serve, 
under  skillful  management,  to  create  among  them  bonds  of  affec- 
tion, and  to  create  a  moral  sense  in  children  said  to  be  made  selfish 
by  isolation.  Moreover,  the  number  of  servants  is  diminished  and 
tne  number  of  efficient  teachers  increased  in  the  same  ratio.  For 
the  same  reason  of  economy,  idiots  are  sometimes  located,  but  not 
confounded  or  mixed  with  the  deaf-mutes,  as  at  Liegnitz. 

For  economical  and  moral  reasons,  in  Germany,  the  tendency 
is  to  substitute,  as  much  as  possible,  the  externat  for  the  internat ; 
to  open  many  small  day-schools  in  lieu  of  vast  barracks,  where  the 
natural  feelings  of  youth  are  trampled  upon  by  a  mechanical  dis- 
cipline which  invites  hypocrisy  or  revolt ;  day-schools  which  accus- 
tom the  children,  after  training-hours,  to  habits  of  labor,  to  help 
their  parents,  (which  is  good  training  too,)  and  to  enjoy  their  home 
and  natural  society,  which  constitute  by  themselves  a  strong  and 
practical  education.  In  Holland,  particularly,  the  children  are  in- 
variably occupied  between  school-hours  at  some  simple  and  useful 
work  ;  later  on,  they  are  kept  only  a  few  hours  daily  in  the  institu- 
tion, and  are  supplied  with  occupation  or  apprenticeship  outside ; 
so  that,  when  their  education  is  finished,  the  pupils  have  not  only 
acquired  capacities  conformable  to  their  taste  and  station,  but  which, 
is  more  precious,  they  have  formed  previous  associations  in  the  world 
in  which  they  will  soon  enter,  not  like  strangers  and  awkward 
cripples,  but  as  old  acquaintances,  or  mates  with  whom  the  people 
are  used  to  speak  and  labor.  Almost  anywhere  in  Germany,  and  all 
over  Holland,  the  deaf  children  of  both  sexes  are  educated  together. 
This  creates  an  emulation  which  makes  the  school  attractive,  and 
stimulates  the  pupils  to  advancement,  particularly  in  speech.  There 
and  thus  begin  these  appreciations  of  each  other,  true,  because  they 
are  immediate,  direct,  and  quotidian ;  there  also  are  born  those, 
reciprocal  feelings,  some  friendly,  some  more  intimate,  which, 
helped  by  full  interchange  of  ideas,  become  so  pleasing  or  useful  in 
after  life,  and  lay  the  foundations  of  future  happiness. 


52    

On  the  western  banks  of  the  Escaut  it  is  difterent.  In  Belgium, 
the  policy  whose  task  it  is  to  place  between  woman  and  man  a 
priest  or  a  devil — sometimes  both  in  one — has  everywhere  separated 
the  sexes,  even  where  sex  does  not  yet  exist,  and,  moreover,  where 
nature  had  already  sequestrated  the  individuals  by  the  double  parti- 
tion of  dumbness  and  deafness.  The  instructors  of  the  mute,  whom 
we  have  seen  there,  and  whom  we  have  named  with  due  honor,  are 
the  pioneers  of  the  work,  and  as  such,  are  full  of  a  holy  enthusiasm, 
and  have  developed,  with  rare  intelligence,  qualities  almost  maternal. 
Such  are  all  beginners.  But  after  these  devoted  men,  there  will 
follow  as  usual  the  ambitious,  the  indifferent,  the  needy,  the  poor  of 
mind,  the  rich  of  bestiality,  in  which  the  dryness  of  heart  of  a  uni- 
sexual existence  leaves  room  for  a  satyriasis  contagious  among  chil- 
dren educated  in  unnatural  conditions. 

Giving  a  last  look  at  the  prosperous  school  we  have  just  studied, 
we  remark  that  the  same  influence  which  deprives  children  in  Belgi- 
um of  their  natural  companions,  deprives  them  in  Germany,  more 
generally  than  in  Holland,  of  their  natural  teachers — who  are  females, 
of  course — particularly  as  teachers  of  speech.  This  practical  blunder 
can  better  be  explained  by  traditional  habits  than  by  wrong  judg- 
ment or  ignorance;  since  the  Germans  know  that  the  Americans 
employ  on  the  largest  scale,  and  with  the  most  marked  success,  the 
educational  capacities  of  women,  capacities  recognized  to  be  far  above 
those  of  men,  where  technical  teaching  does  not  require  energy,  nor 
the  art  muscle.  But  I  must  not  appear  to  forget  that,  next  to  the  great 
school  of  Dresden,  where  one  hundred  and  twelve  young  ladies  and 
young  men  are  learning  to  speak,  and  where  they  receive  the  most 
thorough  education,  the  director  of  this  school,  M.  Janke,  has  al- 
ready founded  for  very  young  deaf  and  mute  children,  an  institution, 
whose  name  alone  reveals  the  inspiring  idea  and  insures  the  success — 
the  Filiate  ! 

The  Filiale  is  a  pretty  residence,  of  moderate  dimensions, 
where  thirty-four  children,  of  both  sexes,  (age  three  to  nine,)  are  in- 
trusted to  three  married  couples,  who  treat  them  like  their  own  ;  they 
live  with  them,  and  teach  them  mainly  to  speak  during  and  about 
the  most  trivial  circumstances  of  home-hfe ;  indeed,  at  any  oppor- 
tune moment.  A  cheerful  house,  trees,  flowers,  living  birds  and 
fishes,  playthings,  and  maternal  cares — such  is  the  Filiale.  Other 
leaders  of  the  same  school  present  a  similar  example.  At  the  insti- 
gation of  M.  Hirsch,  several  Dutch  teachers  of  the  mute  have  cross- 
ed the  Channel,  and  one  of  them,  M.  W.  Van  Praagh,  has  opened 
in  London  a  school  where  these  children  will  be  treated  as  at  home — 
a  Familiale,  as  M.  Janke  would  say.  There,  speech  will  be  taught 
after  the  HoUando- German  method,  next  to,  or  in  combination  with 
the  new  English  School. 


53 


CHAPTER    II. 

The    Spanish-French  School. 
History;    Pereire's  method;     Opposition  to  Pereire. 

24.  History.  The  history  of  the  Spanish  school  opens  with 
the  revered  name  of  Pons,  and  the  book  of  Bonnet,  (1620.)  What 
remains  of  this  antique  tradition  is  this :  Bonnet  published  the 
Spanish  manual  alphabet,  gave  a  theory  of  the  order  in  which  the 
syllables  ought  to  be  taught,  and  suggested  the  use  of  a  flexible 
leather  tongue  to  imitate  the  positions  of  the  living  tongue  in  the 
act  of  speaking. 

More  recently,  Hernandez  proposed  to  use  images  representing 
the  various  positions  of  the  organs  of  speech,  while  Hervas  pro- 
posed to  employ  a  vertical  section  of  the  head  and  neck  of  the 
body  to  show  in  action  the  passages  which  articulated  sounds 
follow,  and  the  movements  of  the  innermost  organs. 

At  the  exhibition  of  Arragon  in  1868,  the  school  of  Madrid 
produced  photographic  charts  representing  the  organs  of  speech  in 
the  act  of  pronouncing  each  sound  ;  and  at  the  universal  exhibition 
of  Vienna,  Don  Carlos  Nebreda  y  Lopez,  director  of  the  same 
school,  presented  a  report  on  the  combined  teaching  of  the  l^lind, 
deaf  and  mute  children,  and  a  treatise  on  the  art  of  teaching  the 
latter  to  speak.  This  book  is  remarkable  for  a  series  of  lithographs 
representing  the  external  ,  positions  of  the  speech,  and  besides  for 
the  dotting  of  the  course  of  the  sonorous  air  trom  the  larynx  out,  to 
form  the  various  sounds.  I  was  shown  also  the  same  lithographs 
rolled  at  the  foot  of  a  mirror,  so  that  the  pupil  unrolling  them  can 
study  alone  and  rehearse  every  position.  He  has  thus  at  once 
several  terms  of  comparison :  the  letter  written,  and  figured  with 
the  hand  alphabet ;  the  image  of  the  movements  he  must  imitate  ; 
the  track  to  be  followed  by  the  sonorous  air  through  his  own 
organs ;  his  own  image  in  the  looking-glass,  to  be  compared  to  the 
lithograph  below,  and  the  tactile  impressions  received  from  his 
voice  passing  from  the  depth  of  the  cavity  to  one  or  the  other  issue 
of  the  speech.  This  mode  of  self-learning,  in  the  interval  of  the 
formal  lessons  must  be  valuable,  particularly  where  the  children  are 
many,  and  the  school  poor. 

But  Don  Lopez  has  also  exhibited  in  Vienna  his  pupil  Martin 
de  Martin  y  Ruiz,  deaf  and  dumb  from  birth,  and  completely  blind 


from  the  age  of  two  years ;  he  is  now  eighteen.  The  education  of 
this  lad  was  commenced  in  1869,  and  now,  after  four  years,  he 
speaks,  reads,  and  writes.  He  understands  the  questions  of  moral 
and  of  personal  hygiene  I  know,  and  those  of  religion,  as  I  was 
told.  He  is  well  read  in  grammar,  geography,  natural  history, 
arithmetic^  and  geometry.  To  make  my  acquaintance,  he  pro- 
ceeded as  he  would  have  done  to  take  knowledge  of  the  problem 
of  the  hypothenuse  with  the  solid  forms  of  his  school ;  he  measured, 
first,  my  thickness  from  sternum  to  spine,  using  the  two  hands  like 
the  extremities  of  the  branches  of  a  compass,  then,  with  one  hand 
he  followed  my  chest  and  arms,  when  with  the  other,  having 
reached  the  occiput,  delicately  as  a  girl  he  touched  the  contours  of 
my  face  and  carefully  mapped  out  the  barren  field  of  my  calvity, 
like  a  land-surveyor.  He  knew  my  out-lines  henceforth,  recognized 
me,  and  became  q^iite  affectiona.te. 

The  method  made  use  of  for  him  puts  in  rehef  the  advantage 
of  uniting  in  the  same  locality  and  under  the  same  leading  spirit  the 
school  for  the  blind  v/ith  the  one  for  the  deaf  and  mute,  as  the 
French  Republic  had  done  in  1794.  Thanks  to  this  combination  of 
means,  Martin  Ruiz  learned  the  spoken  language  with  the  deaf, 
and  the  written  one  with  the  blind.  All  his  instruction  was  com- 
pleted by  his  alternate  passages  from  one  of  those  schools  to  the 
other,  in  the  same  establishment ;  and  he  succeeded  likely  because 
both  were  alike  home  for  him.  This  young  man  is  in  himself  very 
interesting  by  his  kind  feelings,  the  quickness  of  his  perceptions, 
the  vivacity  of  his  emotions,  and  also  for  the  an  American  iiirrteniG- 
riam  of  Laura  Bridgmm. 

The  result  of  this  too  short  review  of  the  actual  labors  of  the 
Spaniards,  at  the  very  cradle  of  the  art  of  teaching  the  mute  to 
speak,  is,  that  they  religiously  keep  alive  the  sacred  flambeau.  In 
the  mean  time,  however,  the  art  had  passed  the  Pyrenees  with  Jacob 
Rodrigues  Pereire;  from  Spanish,  becoming  naturalized  French^ 
with  and  like  himself. 

In  1734,  Pereire,  hardly  nineteen,  was  already  gathering  the 
scientific  materials  on  this  subject.  What  cause  could  have  impelled 
so  young  a  man  in  such  a  difficult  undertaking  ?  '^L'amitU  et  la 
communication  d'um  per  Sonne  muette  lui  ont  susciU  cette 
idee.''  He  does  not  say  more;  but  it  is  easy  to  comprehend  that,, 
without  this  friendship  and  communication,  Pereire  could  never  have 
instituted  the  experiments  upon  which  he  founded  his  method. 

In  1745,  he  produced,  before  the  Academy  of  La  Rochelle 
Baron  Beauman,  who  was  not  his  first  deaf-speaking  pupil ;  and  in 
1746,  before  the  academy  of  Caen  his  pupil  d'Etavigny,  born  deaf- 
mute  but  speaking  at  this  time. 

In  1749,  and  in  1751,  having  removed  his  school  from  Bordeaux 
to  Paris,  he  presented  his  pupils  to  the  Academy  of  Sciences. 


55    

The  academic  commission  composed  of  Mairan,  Buftbn,  Fer- 
rein,  made  two  reports,  which  are  to-day  historical  documents.  To 
be  short,  I  will  give  only  the  concluding  lines  of  the  second : 
"Get  expose  fait  voir  que  M .  Pereire  a  un  talent  singulier  pour  appren- 
dre  a  parler  et  a  lire  aux  sourds  et  muets  de  naissance ;  que  la  me- 
thode  dont  il  se  sert  doit  ^tre  excellente ;  les  enfants  qui  ont  tous 
leur  sens  ne  faisant  pas  communement  autant  de  progres  dans  un  si 
petit  espace  de  temps.  *  *  *  Cela  suffit  pour  confirmer  le 
jugement  que  nous  fimes  dans  notre  rapport  du  mois  de  juillet  1749; 
et  pour  faire  sentir  que  sa  methode  d'instruire  les  muets  ne  peut  ^tre 
que  tres-ingenieuse,  que  son  usage  interesse  le  bien  publique,  et 
qu'on  ne  saurait  trop  encourager  celui  qui  s'en  sert  avec,  tant  de  suc- 
ces.     Signe  :     Mairan,  Buffon,  Ferrein." 

These  commissioners  of  the  Academy,  whose  moral  sense  was 
likely  as  keen  as  is  (5ur,  did  not  deprecate  and  re\ile  him,  as  others 
have  since  done,  because  he  showed  them  the  results  of  his  method, 
but  kept  his  method  as  his  own.  They  concluded,  from  what  they 
had  seen,  that  "the  method  must  be  excellent,  and  that  the  one  who 
applied  it  with  so  much  success  could  not  be  too  much  encouraged^^" 
They  did  more :  they  permitted  the  reprint,  en  suite  of  their  report, 
of  a  note  of  his,  in  which  the  schoolmaster  offers  his  services  to  the 
families  who  have  deaf  and  mute  children  :  a  would-be  departure 
from  an  unborn  morality  which  cannot  fail  to  excite  the  contempt 
of  the  society  that  leaves  in  penury  the  children  of  Daguerre,  who 
gave  the  world  photography. 

But  is  it  true  that  Pereire  kept  upon  his  method  the  absolute 
secret  upon  which  rose  such  reprobation  ?  * 

Before  Duverney  had  published  his  superb  Anatomy  of  the  Ear, 
Lecat  his  Physiology  of  the  Senses,  and  nobody  a  Treatise  of  Otolo- 
gy, Pereire  had  distinguished  the  deaf-mute  proper  (that  is  those 
made  mute  by  their  deafness)  from  the  children  rendered  mute  by 
the  ill-formation  of  the  organs  of  speech,  or  by  local  paralysis  subse- 
quent to  infantile  convulsions,  or  by  idiocy  and  imbecility,  a  differen- 
tiation which  requires  yet  a  good  diagnostician,  (p.  224.) 

Having  thus  set  apart  "the  mutes  which  were  the  objects  of  his 
art,"  he  divided  them  into  three  categories,  which  are  yet  classical : 
the  deaf  absolutely  dumb,  who  are  the  less  common ;  the  half-dumb, 
who  understand  the  loud  noises,  and  voices  even,  but  without  dis- 
tinguishing their  sound,  who  form  the  larger  class ;  and  those  quarter- 
deafs  who  distinguish  some  voices,  and  thereby  have  acquired  some 
idea  of  language.  This  third  class  would  be  the  more  numerous, 
if  it  were  not  early  reduced  by  death  from  many  infantile  diseases 
and  constitutional  affections,  (p.  226.)     These  categories  were  made 

the  base  of  his  teaching : 

_« 

(*  See  for  the  following  quotations  :  "Notice  of  Jacob  Rodrigues  Pereire," 
Jay  E.  Seguin,   in  12,  at  G.  Bailliere,  Paris,  1847.  (5) 


56    

To  those  who  heard  nothing,  the  complete  method,  and  partic- 
ularly the  most  thorough  substitution  of  the  tact  to  audition, 

To  those  mutes  who,  like  Saboureux,  showed  a  difficulty  of 
articulation,  the  teaching  was  made  more  particularly  in  writing  and 
through  the  dactylology  —  in  which,  however,  every  particular 
position  of  the  fingers  indicated  the  disposition  and  action  of  the 
organs  necessary  to  produce  a  sound,  together  with  the  characters 
or  letters  representing  these  sounds,  according  to  usual  orthography, 
(p.  269.) 

To  those  who  heard  the  sounds  in  various  degrees,  Pereire  com- 
pared their  sensations  of  hearing  with  the  ones  we  could  experience 
from  the  sight,  if  several  thicknesses  of  fine  gauze  were  placed  be- 
tween our  eyes  and  the  objects ;  in  which  hypothesis  the  number  of 
gauzes  would  correspond  to  the  divers  grades  of  surdity,  (p.  259.) 
For  the  education  of  this  class,  Pereire  managed  various  gymnast- 
ics of  the  auditory  apparatus,  by  which  he  succeeded  in  "making 
them  distinguish,  even  without  the  help  of  sight,  a  variable  number 
of  articulated  words,  and  some  of  them  became  able  to  extend  this 
knowledge  to  all  the  words";  (p.  257.)  Since  this  was  Vv^ritten,  I  have 
found  that  Pereire  used  electricity  as  a  means  of  cultivating  a  defect- 
ive audition  as  early  as  1753,  but  I  could  not  make  out  with  what 
results. 

25.  Pereire's  Method.  Let  us  come  now  to  his  method 
proper  of  teaching  the  mute  to  speak. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  Pereire,  like  the  other  teachers  of  the 
dumb,  substituted  vision  for  audition,  and  with  it  used  the 
resources  of  imitation,  as  well  as  did  the  Spaniards,  the  Dutch,  and 
the  Germans.  But  we  must  look  elsewhere,  and  mainly  in  his 
reticences,  to  find  out  the  very  core,  or  principium  of  the  method 
which  he  founded,  and  which  he  thought  he  had  a  right  to  transmit 
to  his  children,  as  an  intellectual  heirloom. 

We  will  find  it  in  the  stimulus  which  lightened  his  task,  and 
moved  him  onward  during  forty-six  years.  "The  friendship  and  the 
communication  of  a  mute  person  suggested  to  him  that  idea,"  and 
we  must  add,  for  the  full  comprehension  of  the  problem,  that  this 
same  amity  allowed  him  to  continue  and  to  co-ordinate  the  experi- 
ments, which  he  could  never  have  begun  without  this  friendly  com- 
munication.— Is  not  woman  at  the  bottom  of  any  good  accomplished 

by  man  ? What !    will  some  one  say,    was   it  experiments    of 

touch ;  and  was  Pereire  trying  to  substitute  the  sense  of  touch  for  the 
lost  sense  of  hearing  ?  Precisely.  Pereire,  often  discontented  with  the 
services  rendered  by  sight  in  the  reading  from  the  lips  and  speech, 
as  taught  by  the  authors,  undertook  a  long  series  of  experiments 
which  a  dear  reciprocal  feeling  could  only  make  and  undergo ;  and 
adding  to  the  results  of  these  experiments  those  of  observations, 
taken  upon  a  great  many   deaf  and   mute  persons,  and  particularly 


57    

upon  babies,  he  founded  his  method  upon  this  experience,  as  novel 
as  it  was  extensive,  (from  1734  to  1749). 

But  I  had  better  allow  him  to  develop  the  same  idea  in  that 
peculiar  and  clever  style  which  makes  the  loss  of  his  other  writings 
doubly  felt. 

"All  deaf  and  mute  children,  not  excepting  those  of  the  first 
category,  form,  of  themselves,  some  cries  and  articulated  sounds 
more  or  less  distinct ;  a  natural  ability  often  very  useful.  One  can 
understand  how  children  who  have  no  idea  of  sonorous  voices  can, 
nevertheless,  form  some  of  them,  and  use  them  quite  correctly  in  an 
emergency,  if  one  reflects  that  they  do  not  need  more  than  any  other 
children  to  learn  how  to  cry  when  new  born,  and  in  the  following 
months  to  emit  a  few  articulated  sounds.  To  that  effect,  the  babies 
need  not  hear ;  it  is  sufficient  for  them  to  imitate  certain  dispositions 
of  the  org  ins,  which  they  can  readily  perceive  in  other  persons  by 
touch  and  sight,  and  whose  circumstantial  occurrences  soon 
reveal  to  them  the  meaning  and  the  opportunity.  For  surdity, 
of  whatever  degree,  cannot  prevent  a  child  from  feeling  OJl  the 
hosoiTi  of  Ills  nurse  the  vibrations  caused  in  the  cavity  of 
the  chest  hy  the  emission  of  the  voice ^  nor  from  noticing  the 
movements  of  the  lips,  which  are  invariably  concomitant  to  the  exit 
of  the  speech. 

'•And,  moreover,  the  more  a  child  is  dumb,  the  better  able 
will  he  be  to   feel  early   these   effects   of  the   voice   foreign  to   his 

hearing Those   considerations  led   me   to  think  that  several 

deaf  and  mute  children,  who  are  thought  to  have  lost  their  hearing 
by  accident,  because  they  have  been  heard  pronouncing  at  first  more 
words  and  more  distinctly  than  afterward,  are,  nevertheless,  dumb- 
born  children,  who,  when  quitting  the  arm  upon  which  they  were 
first  carried,  forgot  in  part,  or  in  toto,  what  they  had  learned  by 
the  touch  on  the  chest  of  their  nurse,  and  retain  of  their  former  baby- 
speech,  only  the  articulations  which  are  perceived  by  sight. 
I  also  believe  that  it  is  equally  by  the  concourse  of  touch  (besides 
sight  and  hearing)  that  ordinary  children  learn  the  first  words 
or  semi- words  which  they  utter;  and  that,  being  yet  incapa- 
ble of  the  steady  application  of  mind  which  reflective  imitation  de- 
mands, they  would  remam  speechless  longer,  if  those  who  live  with 
them  did  not  show  their  faces,  did  not  carry  them,  nor  enter  mto  other 
contacts  with  them  when  speaking.  Thus  —  and  this  is  a  new  and 
surprising  fact — the  deaf  and  mute  children  perceive  the  speech  by 
the  touch.  This  sensation  takes  place  when,  speaking  to  the  dumb, 
one  brings  his  mouth  in  contact  with  the  ear,  face,  or  other  sensitive 
part  of  the  body,  like  the  hand.  Then  the  air  which  forms  the 
speech  communicates  to  these  parts  impressions  as  frequent  and 
distinct  as  the  syllables  themselves,  vibrations  which  are  sufficient 
without  any  other  means,  to  give  a  clear  perception  of  several  articu- 


58    

lations.  So  it  remains  demonstrated,  as  per  the  example  of  the 
young  d'Etavigny,  (before  the  commission  of  the  Academy  of  the 
Sciences,)  that  the  deaf  of  the  first  category — that  is  to  say,  perfectly 
dumb — will  be  able  to  distinguish  some  words  by  this  process. 

"The   mutes   of   the   second   class  are   capable  of   acquiring 

more   of  this   knowledge   than  those   of   the   first 

According  to  my  experience,  the  deaf  of  the  third  category  who  are 
able  to  distinguish  differences  between  the  vowels  are  the  only  ones 
who  can  be  trained  to  hear  with  the  ear,  {auriculairement.y 

After  the  enunciation  of  these  principles,  Pereire  concluded  his 
communications  to  the  academy  by  affirming  before  the  commis- 
sioners Mairan,  Bufibn  and  Ferrein,  his  witnesses  and  sponsors  since 
1 749,  that  "he,  Pereire,  was  the  first  who  had  found  out  the  means 
of  using,  not  only  what  was  left  of  audition  in  a  great  many,  but  the 
tact  of  the  deaf  and  mute  children,  to  give  them  the  use  and  intel- 
ligence of  the  language,"  (pp.  278-284.)  And  this  in  virtue  of  the 
law  which  he  gave  in  advance  of  contemporary  physiologists,  "Tous 
les  sens  accomplissent  leur  function  en  vertu  d'un  toucher  plus  ou 
moins  modifie,"  (p.  185.) 

The  discovery  of  Pereire,  considered  here  only  as  an  educator, 
consists,  therefore,  in  the  application  of  this  law  to  the  teaching  of 
the  children  rendered  mute  by  deafness,  and  in  substituting  to  audi- 
tion other  modes  of  tactility,  particularly  the  immediate  contact  {le 
touclier  immediat.)  It  consists  also  in  the  physiological  education 
of  the  sense  of  hearing  in  the  children  of  the  third  category,  who 
naturally  distinguish  some  vowels.  There  is  the  secret  so  well  hidden. 
We  have  it  written  by  Pereire  himself  in  the  Comptes  rendus  de 
VM.cademie  des  sciences,  {Memoirs  de  savants  Hr angers 
5th  vol.,)  more  clearly  and  much  more  explicitly  presented  than 
here.  In  this  fifth  volume,  the  dactylology  is  explained  as  one  of 
the  instruments  of  instruction  for  the  mute,  a  means  of  communica- 
tion of  speech  during  its  first  apprenticeship ;  another  to  represent 
and  recall  all  the  positions  of  the  organs  during  the  lessons  of  artic- 
ulation ;  a  last  resort,  to  express  themselves  for  those  unable  to  spedk 
freely,  from  whichever  cause  among  those  above  enumerated.  The 
dactylology  of  Pereire  was  also  a  language  (by  touch)  for  the  mute 
in  obscurity,  or  in  company  when  willing  to  communicate  secretely 
with  a  friend  in  a  crowd.  Used  largely  in  this  wise  at  school, 
and  even  by  the  parents  of  the  pupils,  it  suggested  to  Saboureux 
the  idea  that  the  blind  too  could  be  taught  by  the  touch,  (p.  267 ;) 
a  suggestion  repeated  ten  years  later  by  the  Abbe  de  TEpee,  and 
since  carried  out  by  Haiiy.  ''The  dactylology  was  able  to  express 
also  mathematics,  music,  the  rhythms  of  poetry,  and  the  accents  of 
oratory  and  of  the  human  passions,"  (p.  266.) 

The  speech  was  taught  by  imitation,  with  vision  as  a  guide 
of  the   internal  positions  in  the  mouth   and  external  muscles  of  the 


59    

face  and  neck;  and  for  the  first  known  time  with  the  touch,  conductor, 
and  monitor  of  the  innermost  positions,  and  of  the  organic  vibrations 
which  concur  in  the  emission  of  sonorous  articulation.  By  this 
method,  the  mute  from  deafness,  of  an  ordinary  capacity,  could 
learn  to  speak  in  twelve  or  fifteen  months. 

How  did  Pereire  attain  this  result  ? 

By  observation  upon  nature,  with  no  other  parti  pris  than 
the  intense  desire  to  do  good,  first  upon  and  for  a  beloved  woman, 
then  on  dear  mute  children,  even  in  the  arms  of  their  mothers.  That 
is  the  reason  why  the  author  of  the  best  "Physiology  of  the  Senses," 
Lecat,  admired  Pereire ;  the  father  of  Emile  and  of  Eloise  visited 
him  like  a  friendly  neighbor ;  and  Buffon  opened,  to  his  name  and  to 
his  work,  a  page  of  his  immortal  Histoire  naturelh  de  Vliomnie. 

26.  But,  alas !  that  is  the  reason  why  the  priests  of  Ca6n, 
Bailleul,  and  Cazeaux,  the  fathers  Vannin  and  Andre  in  Paris,  in 
Orleans  the  Abbe  Deschamps,  and  later  the  Abbe  de  I'Epee  and 
his  sequel,  hunted  him  unrelentingly,  clamoring  for  his  method — that 
is  to  say,  his  own  arms  —  to  beat  hmi  with  them,  in  the  name  of 
humanity.  And  what  answer  does  Pereire  give  to  those  claims,  well 
concentrated  in  the  acrid  charity  of  the  book  of  the  "■Institution 
des  SOUrds  et  muets,  etc-"  ?  He  visits  the  rival  school,  and  seeing 
the  gesticulations  which  go  by  the  name  of  language  des  signes 
TJUthodigues,  mildly  said:  "I  could  not  believe  it,  if  I  had  not  seen 
it,  sir;  you  have,  like  the  Chinese,  as  many  signs  as  there  are  words." 
The  truth  was  yet  lower  than  this  criticism.  To  his  friends,  express- 
ing disgust  for  the  anonymous  attacks,  he  answered,  "I  will  be  mis- 
taken if,  whatever  may  be  the  self-love  of  the  author,  his  religion 
does  not  soon  make  him  feel  how  wrong  he  has  acted  toward  me." 

This  said,  he  left  for  Bordeaux,  to  die  where  he  had  begun ; 
dying,  indeed,  without  completing  this  last  sentence,  which  must  be 
read  by  the  light  of  the  unjust  assaults  of  his  rivals  :  "Praying  the 
Almighty  God  to  inspire  my  heart  with  feelings  of  justice 


60    --- 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Abbe  de  I'Epee  and  his  Time. 
Historical  sketch;     Theory  and  practice;      Consequences. 

27.  Historical  Sketch.  The  Abbe  de  I'Epee  began  quite 
late  in  life  to  instruct  deaf  and  mute  children.  He  was  rounding 
his  sixties  in  1770,  when  he  opened  to  them  his  house  of  the  Rue 
des  Moulins,  near  the  school  of  Pereire,  already  old  and  famous,  in 
rue  de  la  Platriere.  However,  he  then  knew  neither  Pereire,* 
Amman,  nor  Bonnet,  and  entered  a  career,  to  him,  absolutely  un- 
trodden, [Institutioih  &c  ,  part  i,  page  9.)  But  at  the  start,  his 
charity,  even  without  tradition,  was  a  good  guide. 

He  resolved  at  once  that,  what  the  deaf  cannot  understand 
must  be  shown.  "Have  we  but  one  sense  ?  Or  can  the  failing  of 
one  be  supplied  by  the  ministry  of  another?"  (i,  26;)  and  as  a 
corollary  :  "The  only  means  to  render  deaf-mute  children  useful  to 
society  is  to  teach  them  to  hear  with  their  eyes,  and  to  express 
themselves  —  de  vive  voix  —  with  their  voices,"  (i,  155.)  Then  he 
adds :  "The  deaf  and  mute  can  speak  like  us,  when  they  are  in- 
structed," (2,56.)  "To  teach  the  mute  how  to  dispose  his  organs  to 
emit  voices,  and  form  distinct  speech,  is  an  operation  neither  long 
nor  painful.  Three  or  four  lessons  advance  this  business  very  much, 
if  they  do  not  thoroughly  accomplish  it,  in  following  the  method 
of  M.  Bonnet,  a  Spaniard,  printed  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago.  Then  the  children  need  only  acquire  the  usage ;  and 
this  does  not  concern  me ;  it  is  the  business  of  the  persons  who  live 
with  the  pupil,  or  of  an  ordinary  reading-master,"  (2,  9.) 

Having  disposed  of  the  problem  so  summarily,  the  Abbe  de 
I'Epee  puts  his  theory  in  practice.  "When  it  pleases  me,  I  dictate 
my  lessons  de  vive  VOix  {viva  voce)  without  making  any  sign. 
I  speak  with  my  hands  crossed  behind  my  back ;  the  persons  near 
me  do  not  understand  what  I  say,  because  in  their  presence  I  pur- 
posely whisper,  suppressing  all  sounds  of  my  speech.  However, 
my  deaf  pupils,  seated  farther  in  front,  understand  what  I  say  with 
their  eyes,  and  write  it  or  repeat  it  at  will.  This  is  the  more 
remarkable,   since   these   children  come  only  on  the  days  (Tuesday 

(*  Following  quotations  are  from  the  Institution  des  sourds  et  muets,  ^e.f 
Paris  1876. 


61    

and  Friday)  and  hours  set  r^part  for  their  lessons.  Moreover,  I  sel- 
dom repeat  this  experiment,  because  the  language  of  t?ie 
methodic  signs  is  the  shortest  and  the  easiest  to  understand. 
If  masters  were  giving  their  time  to  make  their  pupils  speak  daily, 
the  deaf  and  mute  children  would  soon  get  into  the  habit  of  speak- 
ing, and  would  be  debarred  of  conversation  during  the  darkness 
only,"  (2,  57.)  "It  is  certam  that  once  in  a  while  we  dictate  our 
lessons  viva  voce,  without  any  sign.  The  operation  is  a  little  longer, 
and  this  prevents  me  from  making  an  ordinary  use  of  it,  in  which 
I  am  ready  to  acknowledge  I  may  be  wrong,"  (2,24.) 

Was  it  this  delicious  and  fatal  feeling  of  laziness  which  invents 
the  straight  line  and  tempts  us  to  follow  it  even  through  fire,  instead 
of  the  undulating  and  secure  paths  which  nature  has  everywhere 
opened  to  final  success  and  happiness,  which  captivated  de  I'Epee  ? 
Was  it  the  introduction  in  his  class-room  of  the  Pereirean  element, 
which  began  to  haunt  the  "new  master"  during  his  lessons  of  1772, 
under  the  form  of  Saboureux  de  Fontenay,  auditor  with  his  eye, 
erudite,  scrutinizer,  pugnacious,  reticent  ?  Or  were  the  difficulties 
of  the  problem  becoming  more  complex  and  tantalizing  every  time 
he  declared  them  solved  and  conquered? 

Be  the  cause  as  it  may,  it  is  evident  that  from  this  course  of 
1772  onward,  the  teacher  of  the  rue  des  Moulins  lost  the  philosoph- 
ical sense  which,  in  default  of  special  erudition,  had  directed  his 
first  steps  in  that  benevolent  undertaking,  and  lost  also  his  urbane 
temper,  since  it  became  impossible  for  him  to  ignore  the  "old  master" 
of  the  rue  de  la  Platriere,  loaded  twenty  years  before  with  the  praises 
of  the  academy  pronounced  by  Buffon. 

Saboureux  had  taught  him  the  Spanish  alphabet,  (i,  103;) 
had  demonstrated  the  inanity  of  his  laugage  TuHllodigue  des 
signes,  and  predicted  its  discomfiture,  precisely  as  it  happened,  but 
at  the  same  time  had  refused  to  surrender  the  dactylology  and  the 
whole  method  which  his  master  was  using  to  make  his  pupils  speak, 
and  even  to  communicate  to  them  his  "Gascon  accent,"  (Buffon). 

In  the  mean  while,  however,  the  more  discreet  Saboureux 
became,  the  more  the  Abbe  de  I'Epee  wished  to  know ;  the  more 
the  latter  taught  his  pupils  "in  a  few  accidental  lessons,"  the  less  he 
could  continue  without  a  slow  and  sure  method ;  the  more  "public 
orations"  delivered  by  his  pupils,  the  more  his  artifice  culminated 
over  the  art.  They  were  "prepared  to  argue  about  the  sacraments 
of  the  church  in  four  languages,"  and  to  discourse  on  the  finite  and 
the  infinite,  "these  speakers  of  recent  manufacture,  as  he  jocundly 
called  them.  A  lad  of  twelve  "was  drilled  to  sustain  in  public  Latin 
scholastic  theses".  But  it  was  becoming  impossible  to  continue  this 
crescendo  of  miracles,  even  before  the  small-headed  princes  and 
duchesses  of  Vatteau.  Therefore,  the  fourth  exhibition  of  this  kind, 
besprinkled   with  magnificats,    was  the  last.     The  Abbe  de  I'Epee 


62    

had  to  close  his  exhibitions,  and  to  present  his  work  to  the  public  in 
book-form. 

In  this  book,  ''U institution  des  sourds  et  muets  par  la 
voie  des  sigiies  mUhodigues,  Paris,  1 776,''  the  author,  who 
withheld  his  name,  was  evidently  nervous.  He  felt  that  he  was  do- 
ing a  grave  act,  the  particulars  of  which  would  sooner  or  later  be 
investigated.  In  his  evident  emotion,  he  first  transposed  the  order 
of  his  publications,  the  order  in  which  his  ideas  had  proceeded  from 
each  other  from  1771,  and  which  was  like  the  key  of  his  own  mind 
during  the  last  six  years  of  the  incubation  of  his  system.  By  this 
transposition,  he  embroiled  for  himself,  as  much  as  for  others,  the  in- 
tellectual processes  through  which  he  and  they  had  passed.  For 
he  says,  (2,  5:)  The  method  which  we  publish  to-day  is  anterior  to 
the  lessons  reported  in  the  second  part."  "If  we  had  not  previously 
formed  it,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  prepare  the  deaf  and 
mute  pupils  for  the  exercises."  Contrarily  at  2,  46 :  "It  is  to  neces- 
sity alone,  and  not  at  all  to  profound  reflections,  that  we  are  indebted 
for  the  combination  of  our  method.  We  had  neither  formed,  nor 
even  foreseen,  its  ensemhle  when  we  gave  the  first  lessons",  which 
is  the  more  likely. 

Almost  all  that  second  part  of  the  book  of  the  Institution 
is  admirable  of  faith  and  convinced  ignorance :  the  teacher  mis- 
takes and  persuades  like  an  apostle;  but  as  soon  as  he  feels  -that  he 
has  gone  astray,  discontented  with  himself  and  others,  he  lets  his  argu- 
ment assume  a  painfully  querulous  form  to  behold.  Thus,  in  the  first 
part  of  the  book,  he  soon  "becomes  an  author  by  his  passion,"  and 
though  he  deprecates  the  character,  (i,  13,)  "II  n'est  point  question 
ici,  de  la  folic  d'etre  auteur,"  he  begins  all  at  once  a  dispute  of  semi- 
narist. M.  de  Gerando  cannot  hide  the  fact :  "Pereire  never  rose  to 
dispute  the  method  of  the  Abbe  de  I'Epee ;  it  was,  on  the  contrary, 
the  abbe  who  himself  opened  the  combat." 

According  to  the  rules  of  the  clerical  duel,  the  abbot  gave  to 
Pereire  the  benefit  of  the  first  fire,  by  quoting  some  parts  of  the  re- 
ports of  1749  and  1 75 1  to  the  Academy  of  the  Sciences,  continued 
with  a  fragment  of  the  old  programme  of  Pereire,  which  the  report- 
ers had  inserted.  "The  said  Pereire  divides  his  instruction  into  two 
parts — the  pronunciation  and  the  intelligence.  To  instruct  them  in 
the  first  part,  according  to  the  methods  of  Pereire,  it  takes  12  or  15 
months  ;  in  the  second,  it  takes  more  time."  Exulting  at  this  avow- 
al, the  new  master,  who  teaches  his  pupils  to  speak  in  a  few  lessons, 
derides  the  old  one,  who  needs  fifteen  months  to  do  the  like,  declares 
the  old  method  'excluded'  by  this  avowal  itself,  and  proposes  as  a 
substitute  for  it  his  own  expeditious  teaching  by  the  methodical  signs.'* 
Then  two  hundred  pages  are  given  to  a  criticism  of  the  dactylology. 
But  as  none  carries  his  untold  grief  to  the  tomb,  if  he  finds  a  chance 
to   vent  it  in  this  world,  de  I'Epee  at  last  exhale  his  true  chagrin : 


63    

"It  would  have  been  desirable  that  M.  Pereire  had  given  to  the  pub- 
lic the  means  he  uses  in  his  instruction.  If  they  are  better  than 
ours,  the  present  and  future  will  be  grateful  for  them.  But  the 
Academy  told  us  that  he  keeps  it  secret.  He  made  it  a  mystery,, 
forbidding  expressly  his  pupils  to  tell  how  he  instructed  them," 
(i>  23.) 

There  is  the  real  object  of  the  publication  of  the  book  ^*])e 
V  Institution  J'  Pereire  wants  to  sell  his  method,  or  keep  it  as  an 
heirloom  for  his  children.  L'Abbe  de  I'Epee  offers  to  give  his  for 
nothing.  "I  do  not  want  any  other  reward  in  this  world.  I  expressly 
declare  I  would  not  accept  any  other  :  gratis  acceptistis,  gratis 
date/'  (Matth.  xviii.)  Pereire  considers  his  method  as  his  own, 
acquired  by  more  than  forty  years  of  unrelenting,  unprofitable  labor; 
the  produce  of  that  field  of  labor  whose  property  should  be  held 
sacred,  if  any,  his  encephalon. 

De  I'Epee  is  without  family  duties,  and  has  no  more  apparent 
object  in  this  world  than  -'the  folly  of  being  an  author."  In  exchange 
for  a  name,  he  offers  his  method  gratis  to  society.  Fatal  present ! 
Harpagon  accepts,  and  the  deafs  are  recondemned  to  mutism.  The 
'* Institution  des  signes  mWwdiques"  will  rivet  their  two  in- 
firmities in  one  :  for  the  first  time  they  will  be  deaf-mutes ;  that  is  to 
say,  deaf  without  hope  of  speech.  Bring  forth  the  padlock  from  the. 
frontispiece  of  the  book  of  Bonnet  (ed.  1619-20)  for  the  mouth  of 
the-child  born  deaf ;  pass  it  again  through  his  lips,  and  hide  its  key 
away  for  upward  of  a  hundred  years ! 

But  that  is  not  all.  The  eighteenth  century  had  a  surfeit  of 
abbots.  Between  those  who  courted  pure  science,  like  Nollet,  or 
hunted  for  an  ideal  like  de  I'Epee,  and  those  who  entertained  the 
erethism  of  an  used-up  aristocracy  by  the  erotism  of  their  petits  vers 
and  obscene  literature,  there  was  the  floating  mass  of  the  needy,, 
whose  great  problem  was,  how  to  live.  The  fame  of  the  two  schools 
of  the  deaf  and  mute  children  attracted  them  as  minows  do  pikes. 
They  harassed  the  first  teacher  and  betrayed  the  second.  The 
Abbe  Sicard,  not  content  with  modifying  the  method  of  the  signs  of 
his  master,  and  to  give  it  his  own  name  without  making  it  more 
serviceable,  organized  the  padlock-application  on  a  large  scale,  with 
which  were  silenced  also  the  teachers  who  dared   to  make   the  deaf 

speak  in  the no,   I  will  write  that  name  no  more.     When  I 

wrote  it,  I  did  not  know  all. 

The  French  schools  approved  by  Buffon^  is  the  one  interesting 
for  its  progress  in  language. 

The  abbot's  school  was  that  of  mutism.  I  have  only  a  few 
words  to  tell  of  its  fate. 

The  mimic  signs  are  natural  to  man.  As  his  education  and 
language  are  more  limited,  he  makes  the  more  use  of  them.  The 
one  who  disposes  of  a  correct  and  colored  language   needs  hardly 


64    

any  pantomime  to  express  his  ideas.  Per  contra,  the  deaf,  left 
dumb,  having  no  other  means  of  expression,  tries  to  render  all  his 
feelings  by  gestures,  and  succeeds  to  a  limited  extent.  This  last  obser- 
vation suggested — to  the  one  who  had  promised,  and  more  than 
promised,  alas !  to  make  hke  Pereire,  the  mutes,  born  deaf,  speak, 
— the  idea  of  substituting,  to  the  spoken  language,  the  "la?igage 
des  sigjies  mHhodigiies,"  &c.  He  succeeded  in  the  strictly  natu- 
ral limits  of  the  gestures,  and  even  attained  to  a  picturespue  effect  by 
the  wittiness  of  a  few  mute  pupils.  But  in  the  grammatical  and 
philosophical  order,  de  I'Epee  and  his  successors  in  vain  turned 
from  the  "gestes  naturels"  to  the  "langage  des  signes  mUlio- 
digues,"  trolled  thence  to  the  ''langage  des  signes  naturels'' 
and  whirled  around  to  the  "lajigage  Jiaturel  des  signes.''  The 
deaf  pupils  invariably  refused  to  use  this  language  in  their  intimate 
relation;  de  Gerando  condemns  it,  de  Bebian  demonstrates  its  inanity, 
(./I/eY/^(9f2^,  &c.,  V.  Gabel,  p.  no.)  The  more  they  circumgyrate, 
the  deeper  they  enter  into  a  pas-de-vice  without  issue  ;  simply 
because  they  were  unwillmg  to  acknowledge,  not  only  the  fault,  but 
the  whole  fault ;  thus  "the  Abbe  de  I'Epee  was  written  down  a 
failure,  [H  ecTlOUa',)  several  men  of  talent  tried  in  vain  to  reconsti- 
tute the  language  of  the  signs  which  bred  only  error  and  confusion," 
(V.  Gabel,  p.  112.)  But  none  dared  to  repeat  the  first  word  of  the 
Abbe  de  I'Epee — better  if  it  had  been  his  last  too  :  "The  deafs  can 
speak  like  us  when  they  are  instructed,  and  the  only  means  to  ren- 
der them  to  society  is  to  teach  them  to  express  themselves  vivd 
voce.'*  There  is  the  Gordian  knot  which  nobody  dared  to  cut,  in 
France,  at  least.  The  official  school  of  Paris,  which  ought  to  have 
been  the  field  of  culture  of  the  speech  for  the  mute  proteges  of 
Pereire  and  de  I'Epee,  remained  a  fallow  ground,  because,  if  it  had 
been  plowed,  the  bones  of  the  immortal  dead  would  have  come  on 
top  of  the  furrows.  "Is  it  not  enough  for  your  glory  to  be  destined 
to  partake  of  mine  ?"  wrote  to  the  ambitions  Abbe  Sicard,  the  modest 
anonyme  who  had  unsuccessfully  fought  in  himself  the  folly  of  au- 
thorship,    (de  Gerando.) 

But  the  glory  of  the  Abbe  Perrier  overtopped  that  of  his  prede- 
cessors. One  thing  alone  remained  of  Pereire,  his  dactylology,  in- 
trusted to  Mile.  Lemarrois.  Vainly  had  Sicard  beseeched  for  it. 
"You  are  the  last  man  to  whom  I  would  surrender  it,"  proudly 
answered  the  old  dame,  and  octogenarian.  She  came  to  Paris, 
where  I  heard  her,  to  give  this  patrimony  to  the  children  of  her 
benefactor.  But  these  young  men,  feeling  incapable  of  bearing  the 
burden  under  which  their  grand-father  and  their  grand-uncle  had 
succumbed,  brought  the  dactylology,  the  key  to  the  labors  of  Pereire 

to   the   Abbe   Perrier   who mislaid  it.     His  glory  is  to  have 

burried,  in  the   rue  d'  E/lfer,  the  lost  dactyle  of  the  Master. 

After  this,  the  voices  which  at  intervals  rose  from  this  silent  en- 


65    

closure  were  sedulously  drowned.  De  Bebian  was  severely  punished 
for  having  tried  to  surpass  the  aforesaid^glories".  Ordinaire  lost 
the  direction ;  professor..  Iiad  lo  leave  for  mere  essays  at  speach- 
teaching.  Louis  Vaisse  —  of  the  school  of  Gallaudet,  twenty  years 
a  teacher  of  mutism,  but  converted  like  Dr.  Gillet  of  Jacksonville, 
Brother  Cyrille  6f  Brussels,  Saegert  of  Berlin,  David  Buxton  of 
Liverpool,  &c.,  to  the  art  of  making  the  children  born  deaf  speak, 
published  in  1870,  his  ''Principes  sur  Venseignement  de  la  pa- 
role aux  muets/*  &c.,  the  result  of  his  own  experience  in  the 
class  of  speech  founded  by  Itard,  and  soon  was  permitted  to  present 
his  titles  to  a  pension  of  retreat  —  Byzantine  phraseology  tor  expul- 
sion. 

What  class  was  this  ? 

In  1839,  Itard,  my  guide  in  the  art  of  educating  idiots,  died; 
and  after  having,  in  his  capacity  of  surgeon  resident  in  the  Institution 
for  forty  years,  seen  everything  done  in  it,  and  noted  everything  left 
undone,  bequeathed  his  fortune  to  found  the  teaching  of  speech. 
His  money  was  taken,  but  his  normal  school  of  speech  was  tried  only 
for  the  show,  and  to  render  its  success  impossible,  generally  in  this 
way.  When  an  independent  teacher  had  acquired  a  fame,  which 
could  not  be  ignored,  in  the  art  of  making  the  deaf-mutes  speak,  he 
was  invited  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  to  apply  his  method  in 
one  of  the  two  government-institutions.  Where  he  was  given  a 
class  of  pupils  who  continued  to  live  —  that  is  to  say  to  converse  in 
signs — with  the  other  deaf-mutes.  And  after  a  few  months  trial,  he 
would  be  dismissed,  shorn  of  his  former  reputation,  and  disabled  be- 
fore the  world,  either  like  Dubois  and  his  sister  —  an  admirable  duo 
of  devotion  and  perseverance  —  or  like  Fourcade  —  a  rare  excentric 
talent  —  whose  exeat  is  a  too  precious  piece  of  local  cunning  inept- 
ness  to  not  be  preserved. 

"Paris,  :/lpril  30,  i866. 

Sir  :  The  26th  of  October  last,  I  authorized  you  to  prosecute, 
during  three  months,  in  the  Imperial  Institution  for  the  deaf  and 
mute  girls  of  Bordeaux,  the  experimentation  of  your  process  of 
demutization,  in  view  of  its  theoretical  and  practical  value.  The 
reports  of  the  prefect  and  of  the  lady  superior  certify  that  you  have 
satisfactorily  accomplished  your  task.  Your  mission  had  for  its 
object,  first,  to  initiate  the  sisters  into  the  intelligence  and  practice 
of  your  procedure ;  and,  secondly,  to  teach  the  articulated  language 
to  a  certain  number  of  pupils.  On  this  point,  the  results  leave  much 
to  be  desired.  This  new  experimentation  therefore  corroborates  the 
judgment  passed  upon  your  method  after  its  trial  in  the  Imperial 
Institute  of  Paris.  It  appears  quite  certain  to  say  that  it  could 
endow  the  child  born  deaf  with  articulated  language,  but  only  after 
long  and  perserving  exertions.  However,  the  sisters  ap  preciate  the 
efficacy   of  your   method,   and   expect  from  it,  at  no  distant  time. 


66    

satisfactory  results.  Consequently  I  allow  you  an  indemnity  of  five 
hundred  francs. 

"The  minister  of  the  interior,  "Lavalette". 

Authorized  to  prosecute  during  three  months  his  process  of 
demutisation,  Fourcade  accomplished  the  part  of  his  task  which 
consisted  in  initiating  the  sisters  in  the  intelligence  and  practice 
of  his  procedure ;  but  in  teaching  the  articulated  language  to  a 
certain  number  of  pupils  the  results  left  much  to  be  desired.  There- 
fore, expulsed  be  Fourcade  with  $94.00  for  91  or  92  days  work;  let 
him  go  and  starve,  with  this  certificate  of  incapacity  of  teaching 
the  deaf-mute  to  speak  in  three  months !  Evidently  official  France 
was  becoming  mellow  for  the  cannon-broom  of  Sedan.  But  when 
all  apparent  hopes  are  blasted  a  twig  of  esperance  sprouts.  I  felt 
humiliated  for  the  miserable  director  who,  in  1873,  being  asked  for 
the  class  of  speech  founded  by  Itard,  answered  that  it  existed,  but 
was  not  yet  in  a  condition  to  be  seen.  In  1877  I  may  have  done 
wrong  to  not  ask  again,  if  that  class  was  at  least  in  a  condition  to  be 
seen ;  but  another  could  be  seen  in  the  Pereire  Institution  revived* 


67 


CHAPTER    IV. 

The  Anglo-American  School. 
History;    Visible  speech;   Methods;    Conclusions.    1873 — 1874. 

28.  History.  Instead  of  re-entering  the  origins,  by  quoting 
John  Wallis'  writing  (Oxford  1660),  Thomas  Braidwood's  teachings 
(Edinburgh,  1760)  and  others,  let  us  start  from  1871,  when  the 
United  Kingdom  already  educated  2000  deaf,  and  the  United 
States  3836.  Then  an  effort  was  in  progress,  under  the  auspices 
of  Hirsch  of  Rotterdam,  to  establish  in  England  the  oral  system  of 
instruction  in  day-schools,  attended  by  deaf  children  coming  from 
home,  or  from  some  friends,  where  they  were  boarded  out;  and 
about  the  same  time  a  liberal  donation  was  made  in  America  to 
teach  the  deaf  to  speak  by  means  of  Melville  Bell's  "Visible 
Speech  Symbols". 

It  had  been  remarked  that  teaching  the  deaf-mute  to  articulate 
was  the  very  first  and  for  a  long  time  the  only  form ;  but  it  almost 
died  out,  and  why  ?  When  a  tutor  had  to  instruct  a  few  pupils,  and 
to  convey  to  them  his  own  language,  he  would  —  as  the  strongest 
mind — impose  it.  But  when  it  became  customary  to  congregate  con- 
siderable numbers  of  deaf  mutes  in  public  institutions,  the  inmates 
resorted  naturally  to  the  language  of  signs,  of  which  each  one 
brought  in  some  parts,  as  his  previous  means  of  expression ;  and 
these  signs  intensified  by  their  number  and  repetition  became  as  it 
were  imposed  on  the  teachers,  who  were  subdued  by  their  pupils  in 
so  far  as  to  relinquish  the  "oral"  for  the  "sign  language",  even  when 
giving  instruction  :     See  Supra  de  I'Epee. 

It  was  thus  that  in  the  New  York  Institution — the  largest 
in  the  world,  not  excepting  those  of  Groningen  or  Paris — unwieldi- 
ness  and  mutisation  became  the  principal  defects,  and  other  institu- 
tions had  to  be  established  near  by,  in  which  demutisation  became 
the  objective. 

The  English  part  of  this  pro  loquela  movement  is  well  de- 
scribed by  David  Buxton,  Superintendent  of  the  Liverpool  school, 
who  questions,  like  myself,  the  propriety  of  calling  it  "German". 

The  American  part  of  this  movement  is  headed -by  the  growth 
and  influence  of  the  school  of  Northampton,  Mass.  This  Institu- 
tion was  created  in  1867  by  the  concurrence  of  two  influences 
which  Jerome  Cardan  would  have  called  and  proved  (to  his  own  sat- 
isfaction) to  be  sidereal,  by  the  conjunction  of  two  celestial  bodies  cor- 

(6) 


68    

responding  to  the  meeting  ot  John  Clarke  and  Miss  Harriet  B. 
Rogers  in  the  idea  of  educating  the  deaf  to  speak,  and  establishing 
for  them  a  pyhsiological  school  of  "demutisation". 

If  this  undertaking  fails,  it  will  not  be  on  account  of  any  inward 
defect  in  its  plan  or  laxity  in  its  carrying  out ;  it  will  be  owing  to  its 
very  perfection  —  an  ideal  which  angers  human  imperfection.  It  is 
against  these  unmerciful  odds  that  Miss  Rogers,  associating  her  for- 
tune with  that  of  the  "visible  speech",  fought  the  battle  of  the 
"oral"  against  the  sign  language. 

In  the  ten  years  ending  Sept.  1877  she  educated  by  this  system 
127  pupils,  61  girls,  and  96  boys,  and  she  has  charge  of  66  pupils  in 
the  present  term.  In  Northampton  children  are  received  as  early 
as  their  fifth  year  in  the  primary  department,  a  sort  of  "familiale", 
whence  they  go  to  the  common  school,  and  to  higher  grades  of 
instruction ;  and  circumstances,  of  fortune  and  capacity  permitting, 
manual  labor,  more  or  less  skilled,  is  required  from  every  child. 

The  programm  of  Miss  Rogers  for  these  three  grades  of  instruc- 
tion will  become  more  interesting  when  compared  with  that  of  other 
schools  of  speech ;  in  Italy,  for  instance,  Julio  Tarra's. 

Primary  Course: 

Kindergarten, 

Articulation, 

Writing, 

Language, 

Arithmetic,  (4  rules), 

Geography, 

Manual  of  commerce, 

Drawing. 

Common  or  Crammar  Course: 

Articulation, 
Language, 

.   .  ,        .       \  Mental, 
Anthmetic,    J  Written, 

Geography, 
Manual  of  Commerce, 
History  of  the  United  States, 
Outline  of  General  History, 
Lessons  on  General  Subjects, 
Elements  of  Grammer, 

!<         "    Physiology, 

"         "    Zoology, 

"         "    Botany, 

"         '•    Natural  Philosophy, 

"         "    Physical  Geography, 


69    

(  Free-hand, 
Drawing,  <  Object, 

(  Designing, 

B'igh  Course: 

Articulation  and  Elocutionary  Exercises. 

Arithmetic,  (completed). 

Algebra, 

Geometry, 

Physiology, 

Zoology, 

Botany, 

Geology, 

Physical  Geography, 

Astronomy, 

Natural  Philosophy, 

Chemistry, 

TT-  ^       i  Ancient 

^'^^"■■yUnd  Modern, 

Grammar  and  Analysis, 

Rhetoric, 

English  Literature, 

Political  Economy, 

Psychology, 

{Object, 
Instruments, 
Crayoning  or 
Water  Colors, 
Sunday  School. 
It  is  out  of  our  place  to  judge  of  the  efficacy  of  these  pro- 
grammes.    As  in  other  schools,  some  children  must  "stick"  at  some 
point  of  the  primary,    the  majority  will  be  able  to  go  through  the 
common  or  grammar  course,  and  a  few,  favored  with  an  active  mind, 
will  come  out  of  the  high  course  with  honor. 

What  interests  us  more  than  scholastic  progress  is  that,  through 
the  whole  curriculum,  the  children  do  not  spend  a  day  without  re- 
ceiving from  one  to  two  hours  of  special  instruction  in  articulation 
and  voice  culture,  and  that,  except  with  the  two  younger  classes,  ar- 
ticulation and  lip-reading  are  used  as  means  of  instruction  and 
communication.  With  the  two  lower  classes  writing  is  largely  em- 
ployed in  the  general  instruction,  when  they  undergo  the  training 
preparatory  to  the  use  of  speech  and  lip-reading.  Bell's  "visible 
speech"  is  employed  with  the  older  classes  as  well  as  in  the  prepara- 
tory drill  of  the  younger  classes ;  it  is  the  base  of  the  "oral  system" 
at  Northampton. 


70    

This  system  has  made  converts  in  America  and  Europe :  1  will 
insist  on  the  two  most  important. 

29.  Visible  Speech. — Until  1866,  Dr.  Gillet  had  taught  by  the 
language  of  signs,  for  which  he  had  great  talent  and  reputation.  But 
the  reading  of  the  life  and  method  of  Pereire  shook  his  faith  in  it, 
and  what  he  saw  and  heard  of  the  pupils  of  Miss  Rogers  decided 
him  to  send  his  best  teacher  to  learn  in  Massachusetts  the  rediscov- 
ered art:  thus  it  sometimes  happens  that  the  smallest  American  States 
give  hght  to  the  largest.  Since  that  time,  Miss  Trask  opens  every 
year  a  class  of  speech  for  the  new-comers.  Though  her  first  lessons 
are  individual,  to  correct  the  peculiarities  of  each  pupil,  her  teaching 
is  collective,  for  from  eight  to  fifteen  pupils,  standing  in  a  semi-circle 
around  her ;  but  not  separated  from  her  by  anything  like  the  oval 
table  of  Dresden.  She  holds,  alternately,  a  little  stick,  to  mark  the 
time  or  duration  of  the  sounds,  and  an  ivory  fork,  to  softly  direct  the  in 
ternal  organs  of  articulation,  and  the  chalk  to  draw  or  write  as  in- 
struction requires.  She  also  uses  dexterously  her  thumb  and  index- 
finger  to  form  an  image  of  the  cavity  of  the  mouth,  at  all  the  degrees 
of  opening  whose  representation  is  desired  in  the  course  of  the  lesson. 
In  her  first  encounter  with  a  child,  she  uses  the  means  of  communi- 
cation which  were  employed  with  him  at  home ;  but  after  a  very  few 
days  she  puts  those  means  aside,  and  employs  simultaneously  articu- 
lation, writing,  reading,  drawing,  and  teaches  them  already  to  imitate 
the  symbols  of  the  "visible  speech,"  made  by  herself,  or  by  the  more 
forward  children,  ^vlthout  any  admixture  of  manual  alphabet  or 
mimic  language.  The  chief  mode  of  teaching  at  Jacksonville  by  Miss 
Trask  as  well  as  in  Northampton  by  Miss  Rogers,  and  in  London  by . 
Miss  Hall,  is  by  the  "visible  speech"  of  Melville  Bell.  I  will  try  to  give 
an  idea  of  it. 

It  is  an  alphabet,  of  which  each  letter,  called  a  symbol,  repre- 
sents, at  the  same  time,  the  sound  to  be  emitted  and  the  position  of 
the  organs  of  speech  during  its  emission ;  the  form  of  the  letters 
being  the  very  form  the  organs  must  assume  to  pronounce  them,  be 
the  word  English  or  Mantchou.  One  can  or  cannot  understand  it, 
yet  one  cannot  pronounce  it  wrong ;  and  one  can  read  it,  without 
knowing  what  it  means,  to  another  who  will  know  its  meaning. 
This  will  unavoidably  happen,  because  the  letters  or  symbols  repre- 
sent, as  would  drawings,  the  mouth  in  its  varied  speaking  positions. 

In  this  phonetic  writing,  the  simple  vocals  are  represented  by 
the  straight  vertical  line,  modified  by  the  addition  to  it  of  subordinate 
symbols,  which  indicate  the  parts  of  the  organs  where  the  voice  un- 
dergoes certain  modifications  to  form  the  different  vowels.  When 
the  sound  must  pass  through  the  nose,  that  Hne  is  slightly  undulated, 
as  is  the  velum  of  the  palate  during  its  passage. 

The  consonants  are  represented  by  curves,  not  unlike  the  letter 
C,  but  whose  positions  and  combinations  express  the  meaning  by 


71 

showing  the  position  to  be  assumed  by  the  organs.  Thus,  the  con- 
vexity toward  the  left  (as  in  our  alphabet)  represents  the  curve  of  the 
tongue  carried  backward,  as  in  K ;  the  same  symbol,  with  the  curve 
turned  upward,  as  in  Y ;  the  same,  with  curve  downward,  point  up, 
as  in  T;  the  same,  curved  forward,  as  in  P,  and  so  on. 

Combmations  of  the  straight  and  curved  lines  form  syllables  and 
words.  There  are  also  marks  which  modify  a  sound,  (modifiers ;) 
others  which  shorten  it,  (glides  ;)  others  to  prolong  it ;  and  others, 
like  accents,  which  mark  the  emphasis  before  the  word  or  syllable 
to  be  made  prominent. 

In  the  class  and  class-books,  opposite  to  these  symbolic  letters 
are  seen  engravings  of  all  the  corresponding  positions  of  the  external 
and  internal  organs  of  speech,  and  also  our  ordinary  letters  and 
syllables.  The  alphabet  and  ordinary  writing  are  taught  simultane- 
ously with  this  physiological  alphabet ;  the  children  learn  to  write 
and  read,  to  pronounce  and  answer,  at  the  sight  of  the  two,  or  of 
those  alphabets  separately. 

30.  Method.  In  the  beginning  of  the  instruction,  one  meets 
with  great  diversities  of  disposition,  which  require  great  perspicuity 
and  patience;  for,  if  some  ot  the  children  understand  at  once  what 
is  shown  to  and  required  from  them,  others  are  immovable,  and 
even  may  fall  into  a  taciturn  apathy,  from  which  they  sometimes 
come  out  only  when  a  ray  beaming,  nobody  knows  from  whence, 
lights  up  their  sensorium.  But  this  condition  of  impenetrability 
of  their  sensorium  to  the  means  of  education  may  last  a  long  while, 
and  even  simulate  idiocy.  However,  it  is  good  to  keep  in  mind, 
against  discouraging  influences,  that  there  are  no  more  cases  of 
idiocy  among  children  born  deaf  than  among  any  other  class  ;  and 
that  the  supposed  deaf-idiots  pointed  out  are  "enfants  arrUr^Sj* 
or  affected  with  very  superficial  idiocy ;  effect  of  the  blanks  left  in 
their  mind  by  the  absence  of  the  whole  series  of  notions  which  enter 
the  brains  of  other  children  through  the  auditory  canal. 

Nevertheless,  since  there  is  no  room  here  for  these  physiological 
questions,  the  method  used  in  Jacksonville,  Northampton,  and  Lon- 
don, and  which  is  yet  in  its  period  of  development,  seems  one  of  the 
most  appropriate  to  remove  the  darkness  of  mind  resulting  from  the 
privation  of  the  auditive  perceptions,  and  of  the  whole  order  of 
ideas  which  are  derived  from  these  perceptions. 

All  the  parts  of  education  are  taught  by  Dr.  Gillet  and  his 
institu.tr esses  by  speech  and  by  writing,  which  are  not  only  for 
the  mute,  as  it  is  pretended,  two  distinct  forms  of  language,  but  are 
co-relative  and  counter-proofs  one  of  the  other.  By  this  double 
process,  as  Miss  Trask  here,  and  Professor  Vaisse  of  Paris  remarked, 
if  a  deaf  pupil  does  not  speak  his  language  as  well  as  one  who 
hears,  he  learns  to  write  it  better  than  one  who  cannot  speak  it. 

Much  has  been  said  to  prove  that  the  child  born  deaf  cannot 


—  n  — 

comprehend  the  spoken  language,  even  when  he  conprehends  the 
written  one.  But  besides  the  mutual  support  which  these  two  forms 
ot  the  same  thing  afford  to  each  other  in  the  mind,  the  deaf,  Hke 
the  hearing  child,  understands  them  both  equally  by  intuition  from 
his  own  procedure,  and  by  the  relative  position  of  the  words  in  a 
sentence.  Which  of  us  has  looked  in  the  dictionary  for  the  mean- 
ing of  a  single  word  among  a  thousand  ?  Their  positions  defined 
them  to  our  intuition.  But  if  we  are  what  some  teachers  of  the 
mute  appear  to  be,  the  biggest  books  will  not  be  sufficient  to  put  in 
position  (at  their  logical  place)  the  words  whose  comprehension  we 
want  to  impart  to  the  child  born  deaf,  and  yet  mute.  Therein  lies 
the  logic  of  the  method  of  teaching  the  language.  Those  to  whom 
this  method  is  not  open  from  intuition,  may  go  to  see  its  application 
to  the  less  gifted  of  the  children  of  the  schools  for  idiots. 

But  I  see  that  I  have  left  the  class-room  of  Miss  Trask  to  enter 
into  the  explanations  of  which  her  teaching  has  been  the  subject- 
matter.  This  being  so,  it  may  be  as  well  to  continue  in  the  same 
strain,  after  having  given  the  reader  to  understand  that  most  of  the 
following  reflections  resulted  from  a  conversation  between  Miss 
Trask,  Dr.  Gillet,  and  myself  after  we  left  the  class-room. 

Imitation  was  at  first,  as  in  Germany,  an  empirical  mode  of 
teaching  the  mute  to  speak,  it  remained  the  first  lever  of  the  meth- 
ods deserving  that  philosophical  name.  Thus  the  training  by 
which  the  aptitude  to  imitate  is  strengthened  in  the  mute  must  be 
made  a  mediate  part  of  his  instruction.  But  the  short  road  to  call 
the  attention  of  the  pupil  at  first  to  our  organs  of  speech,  in  order  to 
make  him  imitate  their  movements  by  his  own,  may  eventually 
prove  the  longest  and  the  least  easy.  For  in  the  deaf  mute  these 
organs  have  been  previously  impelled  only  by  unconscious  move- 
ments of  totality,  and  their  internal  and  compact  structure,  or 
mechanism,  allows  the  child  to  perceive  but  a  few  of  the  more  ex- 
ternal and  extreme  movements  of  the  speaking- organs  of  the  master 
which  he  must  imitate.  Moreover  the  deaf-mute,  in  order  to  learn 
to  speak,  will  need  to  be  exercised  in  all  his  modalities  of  feeling  the 
vibrations  of  the  voice,  and  his  hand  must  be  educated  for  the  duty 
of  carrying  the  vocal  vibrations  to  the  brain,  which,  in  its  turn,  will 
send  back  to  the  executive  apparatus  the  order  for  reproducing 
them.  The  same  tactile  education  is  due  to  the  temples,  neck, 
epigastrium,  and  wherever  the  vibrations  of  the  human  voice  have 
a  chance  to  be  perceived.  Meanwhile  the  mouth,  in  its  turn,  ought 
to  learn  how  to  direct  the  most  attentive  operations  of  the  touch  to 
its  own  component  parts,  as  the  tongue  or  Hps,  which  can  exercise 
toward  each  other  the  functions  of  palpation,  as  the  hand  does 
toward  the  external  world.  For  these  reasons  —  though  there  are 
others  also  —  it  seems  more  advantageous  to  choose  the  apparently 
more  circuitious,  but  really  surer   path   of  the  manual  imitations,  to 


73    

exercise  upon  at  first — as  on  a  gymnastic  apparatus — the  aptitude  to 
imitate  of  the  new  pupils.  Soon,  indeed,  a  teacher  cannot  fail  to 
perceive  the  great  advantages  the  hand  affords  for  these  primary 
tactile  exercises  upon  the  mouth  and  the  other  vibrant  parts  above 
referred  to. 

The  hand  is  more  sensitive,  more  habituated  to  feel  than  any 
of  the  internal  organs  of  speech ;  more  conscious  of  its  tactile  im- 
pressions ;  and,  above  all,  its  parts  are  admirably  distinct,  by  which 
disposition  the  slightest  of  their  movements  and  contacts  are  ren- 
dered appreciable  to  the  sight  and  to  the  touch.  In  this  latter 
respect,  it  would  be  a  grave  error  to  imagine  that  the  deaf  pupil 
makes  valuble  exercises  with  the  hands,  when  he  acts  the  manual 
alphabet  or  the  language  of  signs,  and  thereby  would  gain  some 
tactile  experience  which  could  be  afterward  transferred  to  his  study 
of  the  speech.  For  the  gestures  and  signs,  after  they  have  been 
learned  with  reflection,  knowingly  produced,  and  photographed 
seriatim  during  the  first  scholastic  impressions,  will  fall  from  the  order 
of  rational  operations  into  that  of  automatism.  But  automatism  is 
a  function  by  which  the  act  is  accomplished  from  the  periphery  to  a 
neighboring  ganglion,  and  vice  versd-,  without  ascending  or 
descending  communication  to  and  from  the  cephalic  center.  This 
mechanism  suftices  to  explain  altogether  the  incomparable  rapidity 
and  precision  of  the  automatic  operations,  particularly  those  of  the 
hand,  but  also  their  imperfectibility,  and  intransferability  from  one 
organ  to  another.  That  is  the  reason  also  why  the  past  unconscious 
movements  of  the  mouth,  like  the  previous  hand  mimics, 
do  not  prepare  these  organs  for  the  conscious  movements  which  will 
be  needed  in  the  exercises  of  speech.  In  this  wise,  the  exercises  of 
imitation  are  at  first  rational,  but  the  routine  may  become  automatic 
to  the  point  of  stultifying  even  an  idiot.  On  the  contrary,  manual 
imitation  carried  on  with  spirit — as  we  do,oi  ought  to  do,  in  educating 
idiots — is  the  antipode  of  automatism,  a  lively  intellectual  exercise. 
So,  when  you  use  either  sight  or  touch,  to  make  the  child 
perceive  the  movements  which  produce  speech,  the  exercises  which 
promote  imitation  must  follow  each  other  as  the  unexpected  words 
from  an  unknown  and  interesting  book.  In  a  lesson  of  imitation 
thus  given  and  received,  the  impressions  have  to  pass  from  the 
periphery  to  the  encephalon,  and  from  this  center  to  the  periphery  by 
a  double  route  along  the  sensitive  and  motor  nerves.  The  labor  of 
imitation  is  conscious,  though  rapid,  rational,  and  consequently  sus- 
ceptible of  transference.  It  will  accordingly  be  possible,  when  con- 
venient and  opportune,  to  transfer  this  dactyle  work,  the  produce 
of  digital  imitation,  to  the  organs  of  the  speech,  when  this  trans- 
ference has  to  take  place,  whatever  be  your  agent,  sight  or  touchy 
or  both. 

But  let  us  have  a  short  practical  disgression  about  the  former. 


74    

Sight  has  Hkely  been  the  oldest  and  the  only  sense  substituted 
for  hearing  in  the  teaching  of  the  articulation  to  deaf  and  dumb 
children.  "They  were  taught  to  listen  with  their  eyes",  said  the 
books.  We  have  described  several  of  the  means  and  appliances 
used  to  that  effect  by  several  schools.  But  new  ones  will  be  found  ; 
and  just  now  Dr.  Lemercier,  one  of  the  authors  of  the  anatomical 
models  called  plastics,  prepares  a  vertical  section  of  the  human 
head,  natural  size,  in  which  all  the  pieces  of  anatomical  physiology, 
representing  the  organs  of  speech  in  the  act  of  pronouncing,  could 
be  inserted.  Upon  this  section  already  executed,  and  by  the  inser- 
tion of  the  movable  pieces,  not  only  the  teacher  will  be  able  to 
leisurely  demonstrate,  de  visu  et  tactu,  the  most  hidden  positions, 
but  his  pupils  will  be  enabled  to  repeat  alone  at  any  time  their  exer- 
cises of  speech  with  a  better  guide  than  the  mirror  of  Don  Lopez 
the  symbols  of  M.  M.  Bell,  or  the  photographs  of  Professor  Fourcade. 
For  it  is  a  fact,  which  everybody  can  ascertain,  that  the  sight  of, 
and  the  contact  with,  substantial  models  or  plastics^  invite  to  imita- 
tion infinitely  more  than  sight  alone,  attracted  even  by  plan- 
drawings  or  pictures.  But  these  excellent  objective  instruments,  and 
others  to  come  no  doubt,  will  never  push  aside  and  out  of  practice 
the  subjective  process  by  which  the  conscious  touch  of  the  mute  is 
developed  to  its  highest  power  of  reflected  tactility,  and  concen- 
trated from  the  hand  and  periphery  to  the  buccal  cavity.  By  this 
objecto  -  subjective  process,  the  pupil  will  be  able  to  feel  the  most 
minute  changes  in  the  position  of  his  organs  of  speech,  and  will 
soon  become  habituated  to  produce  them,  at  first  by  imitation  in  the 
presence  of  examples  or  models  like  those  of  Lopez  or  Lemercier,then 
on  the  command  of  his  master,  or  on  the  challenge  of  his  comrades, 
in  mutual  lessons,  in  which  each  pupil  in  his  turn  will  be  master  or 
scholar  (with  some  hearing  friend  as  a  judge) ;  and,  lastly,  from  his 
own  will  and  spontaneity  {j)roj)rio  Tfiotu)  in  practical  successions 
of  voices  and  articulations,  whose  continuity  and  modulation  will 
soon  constitute  the  speech.- 

One  can  now  understand  the  propriety  of  the  expresssion  by 
which  I  characterized  imitation  as  the  first  lever  of  the  teaching  of 
speech.  For  this  lever,  motors  were  needed,  and  they  are  found  in 
the  regard  and  touch  educated  to  the  rank  of  intellectual  functions. 
In  possession  of  these  three  instruments,  the  deaf,  though  absolutely 
dumb,  will  speak;  that  is,  will  say  what  he  feels,  and  feel  what  he 
says.  For  the  deafs,  who  distinguish  in  various  degrees  the  voices 
but  not  the  words,  who  have  an  idea  of  the  speech,  but  cannot  imi- 
tate it  by  want  of  a  sufficient  auditive  perception,  this  special  sensa- 
tion must  be  exalted,  as  is  the  touch  m  the  blind,  the  eye-sight  in 
the  painter,  the  smell  in  the  perfumer.  This  is  the  object  of  a  sen- 
sorial education,  in  which  our  ancestors  have  preceded  us.  Pereire 
extended   audition  of    the    subjects  of    his    third  category  so  far 


75    

that  he  brought  some  of  them  to  the  point  of  following  a  conversa- 
tion wdthout  looking  at  the  mouth  of  their  interlocutors.  With  our 
new  aids  to  perceive  sensations,  and  with  a  special  culture,  we  must 
be  capable  of  producing  the  same  results  without  showing  too  much 
vanity. 

A  last  remark  on  speech.  It  is  the  result  of  a  complex  func- 
tion, spontaneously  produced  m  ordinary  children,  and  artificially 
in  those  born  deaf.  The  artifice  consists  in  developing  separately, 
then  altogether,  by  a  sort  of  fusion,  its  elements,  which  are  :  the 
air  expired  with  certain  managements ;  the  same  air  rendered  sonor- 
ous by  its  passage  between  cords  more  or  less  tense,  (vocal  cords,) 
and  under  a  vibratile  tongue,  (epiglottis  )  ;  this  same  sound  rendered 
articulate  in  its  course  along  a  series  of  organs  which  open,  shut, 
withdraw,  or  flatten  themselves  to  prepare,  for  one  or  the  other  issue, 
(mouth  or  nostrils),  the  exit  of  sweet,  slow,  short,  long,  stridant, 
sibilant,  or  explosive  syllables,  according  to  the  obstacles  which  they 
meet  on  the  way.  The  teachers  succeeded  first  in  making  the  mute 
speak  by  simple  imitation  of  the  one  person  by  the  other;  then,  to 
personal  imitation,  was  added  that  of  objects  by  the  sight.  This 
latter,  by  the  improvement  of  the  objects,  became  anatomic,  and 
by  the  progress  of  the  methods  physiologic.  But  no  great  stride 
has  been  made  in  the  use  of  imitation  by  the  mute,  because  its 
training  was  not  first  made  upon  the  external  organ,  like  the  hand, 
and,  later,  transferred  to  the  internal  ones  of  the  speech ;  which  is 
the  only  way  to  endow  this  function  with  intelligence,  quickness, 
and  precision.  They  have,  like  Pereire,  I'Abbe  Villa,  Don  Lopez, 
Vaisse,  Magnat,  Fourcade  at  all  the  stations  of  his  cross,  and  others 
in  Savoy,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  employed  the  manual  touch,  and 
the  natural  capacacity  of  some  organs  for  the  perception  of  the 
vibrations  of  the  noise ;  but  I  am  not  aware  that  any  one  since 
Pereire  ever  tried  to  elevate  the  touch  of  the  deaf  to  the  degree  of 
efficacy  of  that  of  the  blind,  nor  to  transfer  this  sense,  once  intel- 
lectualized,  from  its  external  and  particular  manual  sphere  of  action, 
to  the  internal  organs  of  speech.  One  feels  that  there  is  here  a 
whole  field  to  be  cultivated ;  for  the  organs,  components  of  these 
parts,  from  the  diaphragm  to  the  lips,  are  susceptible  of  a  conscious 
touch,  and  of  a  reflective  obedience  to  the  dictates  of  the  will.  This 
idea  demands  further  development :  the  touch  as  well  as  imitation 
must  have  its  special  training-classes. 

I  may  be  reproached  with  not  having  myself  carried  out  this 
idea ;  but  my  situation  was  unfavorable  to  it,  and  when  I  suggested 
it  to  others  ill-luck  prevented,  as  in  the  last  instance  :  At  the  last  meet- 
ing of  the  Association  of  Physicians  for  idiots  I  noticed  a  child  look- 
ing intelligent  enough  who  would  not  sing.  He  was  deaf.  I  had 
him  on  the  platform  near  the  music  teacher,  put  his  hand,  then  his 
chest  against  the  piano,  and  he  began  to  mark  the  measures  with  his 

(7) 


76      — 

head.  I  left  a  few  indications.  To  my  recent  inquiries  the  lady- 
teacher  answered :  Regarding  my  interesting  deaf  pupil,  I  contin- 
ued the  experiments  you  suggested,  and  met  with  a  considerable 
degree  of  success.  But  the  child  went  home  for  vacation.  I  trust 
another  year  to  be  able  to  accomplish  something ;  think  I  could 
soon  train  him  to  mark  time  with  his  feet.  Many  thanks  etc. 

3I.  Conclusion. — From  this  review,  therefore,  it  would  be 
unjust  to  conclude  that  the  old  methods  of  making  the  mute  speak 
were  wrong  ;  we  ought  to  say  they  were  incomplete.  Except  in  the 
period  and  in  the  country  where,  to  erase  the  name  of  Pereire,  the 
tradition  was  spirited  away,  this  method,  and  the  art  which  realizes 
it,  have  on  the  whole  progressed  by  the  accretion  of  new  means  of 
instruction,  the  dispelling  of  secrecy,  and  honest  compromises.- 

We  conclude  from  this  rapid  survey  of  the  teaching  of  the  deaf 
and  mute  in  several  countries,  that  the  schools — where  they  are 
taught  no  other  means  of  communication  than  the  gestures  and  vvTit- 
ing — are  schools  of  mutism. 

The  French  school,  represented  by  Magnat,  if  it  goes  back  to 
the  practice  of  Pereire  and  to  the  first  declaration  of  I'Epee,  may  be- 
come equal  to  the  others ;  and,  if  it  enforces  the  cultivation  of 
touch,  even  unto  the  organs  of  speech,   it  may  reach  the  first  rank. 

The  will  of  Itard  ought  to  be  respected,  and  his  legacy  faithfully 
applied  to  a  normal  class  of  speech  in  the  school  of  Paris. 

The  schools  supported  by  the  state  have  for  their  object,  not 
competition  with  private  enterprises  or  their  discouragement,  but  to 
test  and  improve  the  methods,  and  mainly  to  turn  out  competent 
teachers  for  the  free  day-schools,  like  the  first  one  of  the  Abbe  de 
I'Epee,  or  "familial"  schools,  like  those  of  Pereire  and  Jankg.  Women 
are,  in  all  these  cases,  the  best  teachers,  particularly  of  speech;  and 
they  should  instruct  as  well  as  educate  the  deaf  children  of  both  sexes 
m  common  with  a  good  sprinkling  of  hearing  children. 

Only  schools,  where  speech  is  taught,  have  a  scientific  stand- 
ing. The  methods  of  teaching  speech,  mainly  characterized  by  imi- 
tation, or  sight,  or  touch,  do  not  now  imply  exclusions,  but  only 
predominances  of  one  procedure  of  teaching  over  the  others.  By 
calling  to  their  aid  descriptive  and  plastic  anatomy,  and  the  physi- 
ology of  the  senses,  particularly  the  training  of  touch,  these  schools 
invoke  mutual  friends,  which  cannot  fail  to  effect  an  early  fusion 
of  all  the  methods  in  a  single  and  final  one.  Already  the  means 
employed  in  the  various  schools  of  speech  may  be  characterized  as 
physiological;  and  the  time  cannot  be  far  distant  when,  by  the  ident- 
ity of  their  principles  and  the  conformity  of  their  teachings  to  the 
procedures  of  nature,  they  will  deserve  the  collective  appellation  which 
Miss  Hull  found  in  her  clear  foresight:    the   natural  method  of 

INSTRUCTING  AND  TEACHING  THE  DEAF-MUTE  TO  SPEAK. 

I  carried  with  me  from  London  this  hopeful  word  of  a  teacher, 


77    

•  whose  zeal  is  surpassed  only  by  her  candor ;  and  I  have,  in  the  last 
five  years,  seen  her  prophecy  approaching  fulfillment. 

Among  other  pursuits,  I  have  given  some  time  to  the  subject 
dear  to  her  and  to  my  old  teacher,  revisited  a  few  schools,  seen 
new  ones,  conversed  with  those  considered  the  leading  spirits  of 
"demutisation"  in  France,  Switzerland,  Italy,  England,  and,  retro- 
spectively, here — because  we  never  know  enough  of  home-doings, 
when  looking  for  progress  abroad  — ,  and  brought  the  subject  to  a 
point  of  intellectual  maturity  equally  satisfactory  to  the  mind  and  to 
the  heart. 

I  say  this  without  a  ray  of  pride,  since  I,  at  the  outset,  confess 
that,  what  I  have  to  say  is  not  mine,  but  is  what  I  have  seen  or 
heard ;  and,  acknowledging  that  I  could  have  learned  more  and  bet- 
ter, were  it  not  for  my  own  failings,  I  will  give  in  brief  these  new 
facts  and  conclusions  : 

A. — Let  us  note,  first,  the  creation  in  1874  of  the  school  of 
Jacob  Rodrigue  Pereire,  subsidized  by  his  grand-children,  and  ma- 
naged by  Professor  Magnat.  Prior  to  his  call  to  Paris,  Magnat 
was  the  principal  of  the  school  of  Geneva,  where  he  had  taught  the 
*^ parole  articu.h'e''  to  the  deaf-mutes.  In  this  year  of  the  trans- 
ference of  his  school  from  Switzerland  to  France,  he  published  three 
classical  books,  two  of  which  are  inscribed,  in  token  of  his  new 
departure  ''d'avres  la  m^thodede  F.  R.  Pereire." 

Conformably  to  this  programme,  Magnat  did  not  commit  him- 
self to  the  exclusive  teaching  of  and  by  the  "oral  language";  but, 
bound  either  by  his  antecedents  (of  which  I  know  too  little  to  tell) 
or  by  the  historical  antecedents  of  the  method  of  Pereire  as  advo- 
cated by  Buffon,  he  assumed  the  middle  position,  between  the 
"sign-language"  and  "the  oral-language"  which  is  characterized  by 
the  term  of  "combined  system"  [systeme  COmMn^). 

B. — But  a  year  before  this  event,  the  Italian  Congress  of  teach- 
ers of  deaf-mutes  held  at  Sienna,  had  proclaimed  that  "speech 
ought  to  be  \hQ  principal  means  of  instruction,"  thus  virtually  fa- 
voring the  "combined  system"  of  which  Magnat  was  to  become, 
under  the  toga  of  Pereire  the  earnest  and  advanced  champion. 

Such,  too,  is  Gislandi,  Director  of  the  Royal  Institute  of  Milano, 
who  speaks  rather  feelingly  against  the  "purists",  with  an  eye  towards 
his  neighbor  and  rival,  who,  a  few  doors  below  in  the  same  street, 
teaches  the  "oral  language"  as  we  shall  see.  Gislandi  rehearses  the 
position  in  1877  in  these  words :  "The  contest  is  warm  between  the 
vurists  and  the  non-purists ;  I  am  of  the  latter,  who  agree  with 
the  Congress  of  Sienna."  Of  the  same  school  are  the  Roman  teachers 
who  use  the  manual  alphabet  and  speech;  the  new  Director  of 
Geneva,  who  teaches  speech  and  uses  signs  and  the  manual  al- 
phabet besides ;  and  many  others  I  have  not  seen,  but  heard  and 
read  about. 


7$    

In  short,  the  "combined  system"  has  not  only  stopped  some 
bright  minds  in  their  way  to  improvement;  it  has  also  made  less 
desirable  converts  for  the  obvious  reason  that  it  leaves  ajar  the  door 
of  eclecticism,  which  opens  on  two  roads  and  allows  every  teacher  to 
penetrate  farther  either  way  —  not  only  m  obedience  to  the 
respective  abilities  of  some  pupils  to  express  themselves  by  signs 
or  orally,  but  in  compliance  with  superior  orders,  with  worldly  in- 
terests, or  from  puny  imitation. 

It  is  thus  that  the  leaders  of  the  "non-purists"  have  a  strong 
desire  to  teach  their  pupils  to  speak;  but  their  followers  are  in  variable 
degrees  indifferent  or  antagonistic  to  this  part  of  their  task.  It 
is  thus  that  under  the  common  name  of  "combined  system"  some 
schools  teach  the  signs  as  the  only  serviceable  language,  and 
besides  the  "oral",  as  French  is  taught  to  fashionable  misses ; 
and  others  succeed  better  in  making  speech  {la  parole)  the 
habitual   language   of  the  deaf 

Since  1873  more  schools  of  "signs  and  mutism"  have  become 
schools  of  "oral  teaching",  than  I  have  named ;  some  by  the  effect 
of  a  brave  conviction,  like  those  of  David  Baxton,  Superintendent 
of  the  school  of  Liverpool,  and  of  Patterson  of  Manchester; 
others  from  outside  pressure, — for  instance  those  taught  by  religious 
corporations :  in  Bordeaux,  Toulouse,  etc.,  after  a  few  lessons 
of  Fourcade;  in  Paris,  in  St.  Roch,  in  imitation  of  the  new 
Pereire  method;  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  with  an  inkling  of  Bell's 
symbols.  But  it  is  done  in  a  spirit  of  obedience,  not  in  a 
spirit  of  criticism ;  so  that  the  "oral  language"  is  taught  like 
the  "manual  or  sign  languages",  indiscriminately,  Pour  V  auiour 
du  Bon-Dieu,  mais  nan  pour  V amour  de  la  VeriU. 

Such  are  the  principal  causes  of  the  difficulty  encountered  m 
extricating  the  true  and  good,  from  the  sham  or  false  schools  of 
the  "combined  system". 

C. — The  "oral  system"  of  the  purists  consists  in  teaching  no 
other  language  but  the  oral,  and  in  using  no  other  during  the  in- 
struction, games,  home  associations,  etc.  I  have  named  its  oldest 
living  representative,  Hirsch  of  Rotterdam,  and  Miss  Hull  of  Lon- 
don. I  have  seen  and  heard  more  of  them.  One  of  the  oldest 
and  purest  of  these  teachers  of  oral  language  is,  according  to  all 
critics,  W.  D.  Arnold  of  Riehen,  near  Basle ;  and  a  younger  one, 
whom  I  was  happy  to  meet,  is  the  younger  and  energetic  Julio  Tarra 
of  Milano. 

The  latter  teaches  nothing  but  speech  and  by  speech,  gives 
two  years  to  the  vocal  exercises  alone,  relieved  only  by  de- 
sultory pleasant  occupations,  like  drawing  and  calligraphy,  without 
even  imparting  the  nominal  value  of  the  letters.  —  Two  years  to 
learn  to  speak,  like  babies.  —  Then  two  years  for  the  construction 
of  sentences ;  and  two  more  for   instruction   in    history,  geography 


70    

etc.,  a  full  course  lasting  as  long  as  a  collegiate  one ;  and  why- 
less  ? . .  All  the  while,  and  several  times  a  day,  the  pupils  are  trained  to 
read  the  oral  and  facial  movements  producing  speech,  from 
front,  side,  and  extreme  oblique  views.  His  mode  of  teaching  must 
be  as  individual  as  it  is  dogmatic ;  though,  as  a  method,  it  resembles 
much  that  is  done  in  Turino,  and  that  I  admired  in  the  schools 
of  Prof  Greenburger  of  New  York  and  of  Miss  Rogers  at  North- 
ampton. 

D.  —  The  congress  of  the  English  teachers  of  the  deaf, 
which  met  in  London  in  1877,  went  farther  than  the  one  of  Sienna. 
They  voted  the  creation  of  a  normal  school  for  the  training  of  the 
deaf-mutes  by  the  "oral  method".  The  discussion  of  this  resolution 
ehcited  the  remarkable  fact,  that  the  so-called  "German  method" 
can  not  be  taught  to  an  Englishman  by  a  German  for  the  phy- 
siological reason  that  the  starting  point  of  the  voice  is  so  far  apart 
in  the  languages  of  the  two.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  German  teachers 
have  been  disregarded  ;  and  the  normal  school  of  London  is  entirely 
English,    and  has  the  best  practical  teachers  lor  its  pupils. 

This  point  was  not  carried  without  a  contest,  in  which  the 
methods  were  thouroughly  discussed,  the  "combined"  being  con- 
demned, the  "pure  oral"  recommended,  on  grounds  like  these : 

The  "combined  method"  rarely  gives  such  good  results  in 
general  education  as  even  the  "sign  method"  alone,  because  the  eye- 
attention  of  the  child  is  divided  between  the  hand  and  the  mouth, 
and  can  not  become  expert  in  the  reading  of  both  ;  and  likewise 
with  the  movements :  skill  and  habit  in  the  expression  ot  thought 
with  the  hand  is  incompatible  with  skill  and  habit  in  articula- 
tion. 

Moreover,  the  time  employed  in  learning  articulation  is  dis- 
tracted from  the  other  studies  prosecuted  by  signs,  without  special 
benefit ;  for  the  pupil  may  speak  and  read  more  or  less,  but  he  will 
continue  to  thinlCy  J)lay^  and  live  in  the  "sign  language" ;  and  the 
"oral  language" — whose  acquisition  retarded  his  general  education — 
the  plain  English  will  not  after  all  be  his  mother-tongue. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  "oral  method",  which  it  seems  impossible 
to  approach  without  signs  or  manual  alphabet,  can  be  taught  by  the 
intuitive  and  forcible  process  of  contrast  and  comparison :  starting 
with  an  object  and  its  articulated  name,  adding  to  it  one  quality  or 
another,  an  action  or  another  etc.,  as  shown  in  the  graduated  series 
of  tables  of  Hill  of  Weissenfels. 

It  is  true,  that  the  deaf  does  comprehend  more  readily  by 
"signs";  but  when  he  begins  to  comprehend,  to  read  on  the  lips,  and 
to  articulate  (which  happens  generally  after  the  second  year)  his  pro- 
gress is  much  more  rapid  and  thorough  than  that  of  the  pupil 
taught  by  "signs". 

E. — This  thesis  is  supported  by  authorities   of  great    weight  in 


80    

my  estimation ;  (a)  by  B.  S.  Ackers,  who,  as  the  father  of  a  toto- 
deaf-girl  traveled  in  Europe  and  America,  visited  almost  all  the 
schools,  and  criticized  the  theory  and  the  results  of  the  different  sys- 
tems, in  order  to  choose  the  best  one  for  his  daughter;  (b)  by  Prof 
Greenburger  of  New  York,  and  by  Miss  Rogers  of  Northampton, — 
who  trained  many  pupils,  and  who  has  in  constant  training  several 
classes  of  20  or  30  pupils  with  whom  the  double  process  of  teaching, 
and  of  being  taught,  goes  on  "orally".  Moreover,  she  exercises 
them  in  singing  classes ; — not  for  the  sake  of  the  song,  but  to  give 
suppleness  and  obedience  to  their  voices,  and  to  cultivate  their  feeling 
of  sonorous  vibrations.  By  the  exclusive  use  of  the  "oral  method". 
Miss  Rogers  brings  her  pupils  to  the  point  of  using  speech  na- 
turally at  school,  at  play,  in  their  family  relations. 

F. — My  last  authority  will  be  the  "Memoir"  of  Miss  Hull  of 
which  I  can  not  help  quoting,  ever  so  litde,  since  I  possess  in  manu- 
script that  most  sincere  inquiry  after  the  best  method  of  educatmg 
the  deaf-mutes : 

"The  belief,  that  the  voice  of  the  deaf  must  be  harsh  and  un- 
natural, is  founded  on  the  experience  acquired  in  the  "combmed 
system".  As  I  originally  taught  by  that  system,  my  pupils  were 
examples  of  that  harshness;  those  who  heard  their  voices,  condemned 
them  as  distressing.  The  same  people  now  say  that  my  present 
pupils  are  not  unpleasant  to  hear,  and  are  easy  to  understand.  So 
much  for  the  conscant  use  of  the  "voice"  to  the  exclusion  of  any 
"sign-language." 

"So  long  as  I  taught  articulation  only  as  an  accomplishment  — 
writing  and  finger-talking  being  the  most  frequent  means  of  converse 
— my  pupils  used  their  voices  only  in  addressmg  me,  and  in  certain 
studies ;  consequently  the  greater  part  of  the  day  their  vocal  organs 
were  lying  idle. 

"The  deprivation  of  constant  practice  injures  the  tone  of  the 
voice ;  and  as  the  deaf  are  only  too  ready  to  think  themselves  the 
objects  of  detractive  remarks,  they  will  find  out  that  their  speech  is 
considered  peculiar,  and  be  driven  to  use  it  less,  and  more  the  silent 
methods  ;     and  they  thus  are  driven  back  to  the  society  of  the  deaf. 

"In  contrast,  a  child  taught  to  speak  constantly — using  his  voice 
and  looking  at  the  mouths  —  acquires  unconsciously  many  sounds 
that  have  not  been  obtainable  in  study  hours. 

"A  greater  advantage  is,  that,  thinking  in  the  oral  language  — 
which  is  the  same  as  the  book  language  —  the  pupil  can  learn 
from  any  book  or  periodical,  instead  of  being  Hmited  for  his 
information  to  books  expressly  printed  in  the  syntax  of  the  deaf- 
mute  language. 

"With  regard  to  economy  of  time,  though  at  first  the  "oral 
system"  seems  slower  than  the  "combined  system",  practice  proves 
the  contrary.     In  the  first  two   years  I  find  my  present   pupils  ap- 


81    

parently  behind  those  I  taught  by  the  "mute  languages",  but  in  the 
third  and  fourth  year  they  take  their  stand  where  my  former  pupils 
were  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  year,  and  they  have  at  the  same  time  a 
freedom  in  associating  with  their  families  and  friends,  such  as  the 
others  never  attained. 

•'It  was  the  question  of  conveying  the  largest  amount  of  infor- 
mation that  held  me  back  so  long  from  "lip-reading"  ;  and  it  is  that 
which  holds  back  many  teachers :  the  "combined  method"  did  not 
convince  me,  the  "pure  oral  method"  did." 

I  wish  I  could  quote  more  of  Miss  Hull  on  this  score  ;  but  I 
have  to  borrow  from  her  authority  on  another  question  after  intro- 
ducing the  following  general  remarks. 

G. — It  appears  from  the  foregoing  quotations,  that  the  division 
of  the  schools  for  the  deaf  according  to  nationalities  has  lost  its 
meaning,  —  not  excepting  its  reduction  to  two :  the  would-be 
"French",  which  is  the  "abbatial"  mutisation,  and  the  assumed 
"German",  which  Buffon  extolled  as  the  "Spanish-French  demictisa- 
tion''  many  years  before  Heinicke.  —  The  same  documents  show 
also  that  between  the  present  schools,  in  which  the  English  have 
made  such  marked  advance,  the  teaching  of  speech  is  no  more 
a  question  of  yes  or  no,  but  one  of  plus  and  minus  ;  and  that  its 
technics,  settled  in  principle,  will  continue  to  vary  in  obedience  to 
the  physiological  accommodation  of  the  organs  of  speech  in  differ- 
ent countries. 

H. — My  last  quotation  and  remark  is  this :  After  years  of 
teaching  to  read  and  articulate  by  the  use  of  Bell's  symbols.  Miss 
Hull  perceived  that  the  thought  of  these  symbols  holds  her  pupils 
back  from  a  ready  power  of  lip-reading ;  and  this  discovery  made 
her  give  them  up. 

"So  long  as  my  pupils  thought  m  the  visible-speech-symbols  and 
spelled  in  the  ordinary  way,  there  was  a  process  of  translation  going 
on  (not  unlike,  though  not  quite  so  heterogeneous  as  that  from  the  sign 
language  to  the  verbal,  but  we  all  know  that,  to  truly  speak  a  lan- 
guage, we  must  think  in  it.  For  this  reason,  I  now  avoid  teaching 
my  pupils  the  "symbols" ;  though  I  still  consider  a  knowledge  ot 
them  of  great  value  to  a  teacher." 

Here  let  us  appeal  from  Miss  Hull  possibly  discouraged,  to  Miss 
Hull  confident  or  critical  —  since  her  mmd  evidently  passed  through 
these  stages;  and  we  will  say:  not  only  the  symbols  of  A.  M.  Bell 
are  necessary  to  the  teacher  as  guides,  but  to  the  children  as  the 
types  of  the  positions  to  be  assumed  and  of  the  movements  to  be 
made,  during  their  self-repeating  lessons.  In  this  wise — if  not  as 
the  base  of  a  whole  system  of  verbal  and  "written"  communication, — 
the  "symbols"  complete  the  series  of  illustrated  lessons,  offered  in 
Lopez's  mirror-pictures,  in  Fourcade's  photographs,  in  Vaisse's  engra- 
vings,  in  Lemercier's   models,  etc.,    as  means  of  representing  to  the 


—     83    

eye  the  physiology  of   speech : —  a  part,  certainly,  of    Miss  Hull's 

NATURAL  METHOD. 

However,  Miss  Hull  differs  from  her  American  friend  and  former 
teacher,  Miss  Rogers,  on  a  point  of  doctrine,  because  truth  is  her 
best  friend  and  inspirer.  Here  Miss  Rogers  shows  more  firmness, 
and  Miss  Hull  concedes  more  to  her  conscience.  Who,  of  the 
two,  will  be  awarded  the  premium  for  practical  success  in  a  not  too- 
far  future  ?  . .  In  other  words,  will  the  "physiological  symbols  of 
the  speech"  be  used  as  the  only  reasonable  letters  in  the  teaching 
of  the  deaf  to  speak,  read,  etc.  ? 

But  the  receding  of  Miss  Hull  from  the  teachmg  of  and  by  the 
"phonetic  symbols"  has  a  higher  significance  than  this  in  the 
philosophy  of  education.  It  furnishes  a  fine  illustration  of  the 
sickening  autocracy  of  automatism  over  what  we  —  at  large  —  are 
pleased  to  call  our  intellectual  determinations ;  and  shows  how  we — as 
lone  units  —  are  feeble  under  the  weight  of  the  great  beast.  Custom. 

Bell's  symbols  (such  as  (f)io,  which  denotes  the  word  "yes") 
constitute  the  only  alphabet  which  represents  anatomically  the 
physiology  of  human  languages.  This  graphic  system  of  represen- 
tation of  the  organs  in  the  act  of  emitting  voices  is  applicable  to  all 
the  languages,  known  and  unknown ;  and  could  as  well  be  ex- 
tended to  the  language  of  all  the  animals,  as  it  certainly  is  a  re- 
newal of  the  first  phonetic  alphabets,  which  succeeded  the  sym- 
bolic, when  the  wise  men  of  the  East  wanted  to  enter  in  communica- 
tion with  the  Mediterranean  races.  It  took  ages,  and  many  revo- 
lutions to  alter  the  Assyrian  into  the  Sidonic,  Phoenician  and  the 
successive  Hellenic  letters.  So  it  will  take  a  long  while,  even  in  this 
age  of  rapid  evolution,  to  substitute  for  our  mongrel  letters,  the 
physiological  symbols  or  graphics  of  speech ;  and  how  many 
small,  faithful  "marms",  like  Miss  Hull,  will  pass,  taking  it  up  in 
despair,  before  the  "sovereign  people"  can  say  yes  to  it  and  would 
write  it. 

And  yet,  the  physiological  symbols  of  Alexander  Melville  Bell — 
rendered  actually  useless  by  our  automatic  habits — the  only  plea  on 
which  to  excuse  my  own  and  others'  stupidity — is  a  greater  inven- 
tion than  the  telephone  of  his  son,  Alexander  Graham  Bell — rendered 
almost  magnetically  popular  by  our  present  need  of  automatons  to 
work  for  us  when  we  think or  not. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  both  the  physiological  alphabet  and  the 
telephone  have  been  elaborated  m  the  schools  for  the  deafs ;  and 
that  to  an  intense  love  for  the  afflicted,  are  due  two  important  dis- 
coveries. So  are  mysteriously  linked  the  progress  of  the  highest  in- 
telligences with  charity  for  the  afflicted.  The  following  chapter  will 
be  another  demonstration  of  this  truth. 

In  due  honor  to  Itard,  my  first  teacher,  and  to  J.  R.  Pereire, 
whom  the  intellectual  guides  of  my  youth  venerated,  I  have  conclu- 


83 


ded  this  second  part  of  my  report,  leaving  unfinished  the  first,  and 
unwritten  the  third — though  its  subject,  the  Education  of  Idiots, 
is  as  dear  to  me  as  the  teaching  of  speech  to  the  mute  was  to  Itard 
and  Pereire — thus  paying  the  debt  of  my  friends  first. 


(8) 


84    - 


EDUCATION  OF  IDIOTS  AND  FEEBLE-MINDED 
CHILDREN. 

"^3  pathological  physiology  is  the  counterproqf  of  normal 
physiology^  likewise  normal  education  is  for  one  part 
created^  for  another  verified  hy  pathological  education?'' 

CHAPTER  I. 

Foreign  Schools  for  Idiots. 

Origin;  German  schools;  German  methods;  The  school  of  Gladbach;  Belgian 
and  Dutch  schools;  Gheel^  Ghent ^  The  Hague;  French  schools  at  BicUre^ 
La  Salpetriere^  Geniilly;  English  schools  at  Essex  Hall,  Earlswood,  Lan- 
caster, Norman  Field,  Clayton;    Swiss  and  Italian  Cretins. 

32.  Origin.  Next  in  the  chronologic  order  of  special  teach- 
ing would  come  a  survey  of  what  was  exhibited  in  Vienna  and  seen 
in  European  schools  for  the  education  of  the  blind.  But  there  was 
nothing  new  and  worthy  of  special  encomium ;  on  the  contrary, 
some  alterations  which  do  not  seem  for  the  better;  for  instance,  the 
limitation  of  their  professional  teaching  to  music  in  two  forms  — 
instrumental  execution  and  tuning.  Under  the  leadership  of  Dr. 
Howe,  the  blind  have  been  better  taught  in  this  repubHc.  Being 
here  particularly  interested  in  the  principle,  we  have  already  shown 
the  theory  of  the  substitution  of  the  sense  of  touch  for  that  of  sight  : 
a)  When  Pereire  taught  Mile.  Lemarrois,  her  mother,  and  all  her 
family  to  speak  and  read  by  the  touch  on  the  arm,  or  m  the  hand 
of  each  other  ;  J)  Sarboureux  exposing  the  theory  of  this  fact  and 
demanding  its  application  to  the  teaching  of  the  blind ;  c)  The 
Abbe  de  1'  Epee  advocating  this  idea  of  his  acquaintance,  Sabou- 
reux;  d)  Long  before,  Haily  realized  it  (1784)  —  a  realization 
which  demanded  more  benevolence  than  brains.  Therefore  we 
break  the  chronological  order  in  favor  of  the  rational  order  which 
calls  for  the  education  of  idiots  and  feehU-minded  cJiildren. 

This  education,  too,  was  like  an  off-shoot  of  that  of  the  deaf- 
mutes.  Not  only  did  Itard,  for  forty  years  physician  in  the  Parisian 
Institution,  conduct  there  the  experimental  training  of  the  Sauvage 
de  V  ^veyron,  but  he  applied  to  it  the  same  physiological  ideas 
which,  in  Pereire,  had  received  the  approbation  of  Lecat,  Rousseau, 
and  Buffon.     The  subsequent  incubation  and   development  of  this 


85    —  - 

idea  will  be  better  told  by  somebody  else,  and  may  be  omitted  here, 
where  are  wanted  only  the  pedagogic  results  arrived  at  in  educating 
idiots. 

Few  of  these  results  could  be  seen  in  the  Welt-Ausstellung,  but 
the  bulk  were  scattered  in  many  schools,  all  created  since  1840.  I 
had,  before  starting,  visited  the  American  institutions ;  so  that — with 
memory  fresh  of  the  doings  at  home  —  I  could  see  and  compare 
what  was  done  abroad, 

33.  1.  German  schools  for  idiots.  —  method.  Geniiany 
did  not  impress  me  as  having  made  much  progress ;  but  I  have  not 
seen  all  her  schools.  Speaking  only  of  those  I  visited, — where  I  ex- 
pected the  best  I  found  the  worst,  that  is  at  Berlin  and  Dresden. 
I  had  in  my  mind  the  labors  of  Sagaert,  and  found  places  that  weie 
hardly  custodian.  But  Sagaert  had  left  the  direction  of  the  school 
tor  idiots  and  deaf  children,  for  the  more  influential  position  of  inti- 
mate counselor  of  the  Kaiser  in  all  matters  of  education.  His  mind 
was  now  scattered  among  his  pupils,  two  of  them  already  named, — 
Kratz  of  Liegnitz  and  Linartz  of  Aix-la-ChapeIle( Aachen.)  In  the 
German  school,  it  has  been  a  mistake  or  a  deplorable  necessity  to 
mingle  the  idiots  with  the  mutes;  the  former  being  harmed  in  sev- 
eral ways  and  benefited  in  scracely  any  by  the  often  rude  contact  of 
the  latter,  and  the  teacher  of  both  being  overtaxed  and  also  poorly 
helped.  For,  if  the  state  institutions  are  tolerably  supplied  with 
sub-teachers  and  attendants,  the  provincial  ones  are  miserably  pro- 
vided; and  with  grief  I  left  Liegnitz,  where  I  saw  Kratz  doing  the 
work  of  three  or  four  men.  There,  also,  I  saw  the  children  take  a  meal 
of  only  a  piece  of  dry  dark  bread,  though  cheerfully ;  and  the 
building  was  very  dilapidated,  though  clean  and  well  aired,  with 
fine  open  grounds.     The  province  is  poor. 

The  school  of  Crashnitz,  near  Breslau,  is  large  and  well  furn- 
ished. I  did  not  penetrate  far  enough  north  to  see  it,  nor  those  of 
Bendorf,  Stettin,  Hanover,  nor  the  much-praised  one  of  Dr.  Lau- 
denberger  near  Stuttgart.  But  I  saw  the  school  of  Gladbach,  near 
Dusseldorf.  whose  name,  written  over  the  front  gate,  is  Hephata. 

This  institution  has  existed  fifteen  years  under  the  direction  of 
Dr.  Barthold,  a  pupil  of  Laudenberger — a  man  of  ripe  and  con- 
firmed ideas.  The  grounds  are  fine,  the  buildings  have  a  conventual 
air,  like  our  old  College  d' pluxerrey  built  by  Amiot.  There  are 
one  hundred  and  thirty  pupils  —  ninety  boys  and  forty  girls  -  - 
taught  by  two  male  teachers,  and  ten  females  who  attend  to  the 
general  nursing,  education  in  cleanliness,  and  elementary  good  habits. 
The  rooms  are  scantily  furnished  with  models,  charts,  etc.,  but  full 
of  desks,  and  the  desks  full  of  pupils.  College  reminiscenses  again 
forced  their  way  into  my  mind,  not  because  we,  too,  were  idiots  (of 
I  some  sort),  but  because  those  of  Gladbach  were  almost  as  crowded 
^as  we  were  with  books,  slates,  and  similar  instruments,  which,  if  they 


do  not  sharpen,  must  dull  the  wit — files  used  the  wrong  way.  I  have 
seen  no  gymnastics,  no  course  of  muscular  and  sensory  training,  no 
series  of  acts  of  imitation,  no  manual  exercises.  I  must  have  missed 
the  exercises  of  speech,  which  should  not  be  omitted  in  a  school  for 
idiots. 

Girls  and  boys  are  educated  together ;  most  of  them  live  at  home 
or  with  some  friend,  coming  to  the  institution  only  during  instruction, 
and,  when  sufficiently  advanced,  spending  part  of  their  time  where 
they  are  apprenticed  preparatory  to  leaving  the  institution.  I  am 
sorry  to  say  that  I  saw  no  playthings.  Life  is  not  only  studious,  but 
it  looks  serious  at  Gladbach;  two  facts  reflecting  the  social  condition 
of  the  surrounding  population^  Accordingly,  as  soon  as  possible  the 
idiots  are  set  to  work,  the  girls  housekeeping  and  sewing,  the  boys 
hewing,  spading,  etc.,  in  the  grounds  of  the  institution;  in  bad 
weather  all  making  baskets,  hosiery,  list-shoes,  etc.,  for  the  trade. 

A  cent  is  one  cent,  says  the  proverb.  Absurd !  It  may  be  a 
dollar  or  an  eagle.  Wherever,  as  in  Germany,  work  is  paid  for  in 
copper,  silver  is  retained  by  the  tradesman,  and  gold  is  hoarded  by 
a  landed  or  military  aristocracy.  The  idiots  have  not  yet  secured 
the  gold,  and  work  hard  for  the  copper.  Once  earned,  I  believe  it  is 
applied,  as  far  as  it  can  go,  to  their  comfort.  However,  these  chil- 
dren look  well;  I  could  not  say  happy,  for  they  look  happy,  only 
when  they  are  happy.  The  German  education  of  idiots  ruay  be  thus 
summed  up — instruction,  occupation,  no  training  of  the  functions, 
no  relaxation  by  playthings  and  pleasure.  I  am  aware  that  Sagaert, 
Linarts,  and  Kratz  have  higher  ideas ;  but  other  schools  are  lower 
than  that  of  Gladbach,  which  is  for  me  the  representative  of  the  aver- 
age German  institutions  for  idiots.  If  I  am  mistaken,  I  should  like 
to  be  corrected. 

33.  Belgian  and  Dutch  Schools  for  Idiots.  In  Belgium  I 
saw  but  two  institutions  for  idiots.  In  Gheel  about  fifteen  idiots  were 
set  free  according  to  the  remarkable  system  of  management  of  the  in- 
sane in  that  village;  and  consequently,  nearly  every  one  of  them  is 
a  type  of  individuality.  One,  Adrien  Jack,  shows  real  talent  for  or- 
namentation, otherwise  low  in  idiocy.  There  is  not  room  here  to  de- 
scribe his  brother  and  the  others.  I  should  not  be  surprised  to  hear 
that  Dr.  Bulkens  awakened  to  the  importance  of  the  work,  and 
tempted  by  his  exceptional  opportunities,  has,  since  our  conversation, 
organized  a  school  for  idiots  on  a  "familial"  plan,  somewhat  analo- 
gous to  the  one  he  uses  in  the  treatment  of  his  1,600  insane  patients. 
— Bulkens  died  since ;  no  small  loss. 

In  Ghent,  the  celebrated  hospital  of  Guislain  contains,  besides  470 
insane  inmates,  70  idiots,  of  which  30  paralytics  and  gateiix,  and  40 
who  are  able  to  go  to  school.  The  school,  formerly  organized  for  the  in- 
sane by  Guislain,  resembles  those  founded  by  Leuret  at  Bicetre,and  Tre- 
lat  at  the  Salp^triere, — contemporary  conceptions,  adapted  to  the  in- 


87    

sane,  but  inappropriate  for  idiots.  Thus,  in  fhe  Guislain  school,  the 
idiots  learn  to  write,  read,  and  cipher,  if  they  can.  But  there  are  no 
gymnastics,  no  training  of  the  senses,  no  drawing  lessons,  none  of 
the  specific  forms  of  education  corresponding  to  the  native  incapaci- 
ties of  the  idiot.  The  successor  of  Guislain,  Dr.  Ingels,  is  well  aware 
of  these  deficiencies ;  but  what  can  he  do  when  Frere  Thomas  says 
No?  He  IS  the  same  "Brother"  who  overrules  Dr.  Arthaud  at 
Lyons,  at  the  hospital  of  the  Anticaille,  and  wherever,  under  cover 
of  humility,  he  has  usuiped  the  overwhelming  power. 

In  Holland  this  pressure  has  been  set  aside,  and  men  can  do 
what  they  think  right.  The  exercise  of  freedom  has  developed  in 
this  litde  nation  a  marvellous  sense  of  the  proportion  to  be  kept  be- 
tween the  means  and  the  object ;  a  proportion  of  which  their  school 
for  idiots  offers  a  correct  example  ;  marvellous,  considering  tho 
superfluity,  or  the  scantiness,  of  the  means  elsewhere  applied  to  the 
same  object. 

The  institution  for  the  education  of  idiots  was  founded  at  the 
Hague,  under  the  patronage  of  the  late  Queen  of  Holland,  with 
the  concurrence  of  Hirsch,  the  great  teacher  of  the  deaf-mutes  at 
Rotterdam,  and  of  Schroeder  von  der  Kolk,  the  physiolo- 
gist. 

When  I  visted  the  school,  it  was  — and  happily  is  yet — under 
the  judicious  management  of  Professor  Moesveld.  It  accommoda- 
ted twenty-seven  girls  and  forty  boys  of  various  ages,  and  educated 
them  together  in  all  the  grades.  Twenty-five  of  the  number  were 
day-pupils,  who  went  home  at  night ;  but  a  larger  number  left  the 
class-rooms  between  lessons,  to  spend  part  of  their  time  in  the  shops 
of  the  neighborhood,  learning  a  simple  trade,  such  as  making  cigars, 
mats,  chair-bottoms,  etc.  This  is  evidently  the  result  of  what  may 
be  called  the  policy  of  the  Dutch  plan  of  education :  of  keeping 
alive  the  family-feelings  and  habits  in  the  parents,  as  well  as  in  the 
child ;  of  habituating  the  neighbors,  and  particularly  the  children,  to 
look  kindly  upon  the  idiot ;  of  giving  him  habits  of  industry  under 
kind  supervision ;  of  assisting  him  first  as  a  helpless  apprentice,  later 
as  a  defenceless  helper ;  of  giving  confidence  to  the  idiot,  who  is 
naturally  or  by  experience  apprehensive  of  contact  with  wit  and 
craftiness.  They  seem  to  consider  here,  that  the  idiot  loses  more 
than  he  gains,  by  bartering  his  family -feelings  and  his  friendly  associ- 
ations in  labor,  for  a  little  reading,  ciphering,  drawing,  and  improved 
standing  before  a  public  oftener  supercilious  than  benevolent.  Ac- 
cordingly, they  have  tried  to  secure  for  him  the  advantages  of  the 
school  for  learning,  and  of  the  family  and  neighborhood  associations 
for  sociability  and  happiness. 

To  obtain  the  moral  effects  of  this  plan,  the  school  is  situated 
in  the  center  of  the  city ;  it  is  of  easy  access,  in  the  midst  of  the 
aboring  population,  so  that  the  children  may  be  in  and   out,  taught 


inside  or  sent  to  work  outside,  without  trouble  or  more  loss  of  time, 
beyond  what  is  required  for  an  airing. 

The  institution  may  be  described  as  a  collection  of  old,  but 
Holland-clean  residences,  connected  by  cheap  sheds,  appropriated 
for  gymnastic  exercises,  of  which  the  doors  and  windows  open  to  the 
sun.  The  gardens  in  front  have  been  made  into  one  yard,  well 
drained  and  graveled ;  fine  trees,  with  tops  fan-spread,  have  been 
spared  at  a  distance  from  the  buildings.  In  fine  weather,  these  grounds 
supply  room  for  active  training  and  play;  a  compensation  tor  the  scant- 
iness of  the  apartments.  If  the  institution  is  not  showy  in  its  buildings, 
it  is  rich  in  the  essentials  of  a  school.  It  employs  nine  teachers, 
male  and  female,  besides  numerous  servants  for  sixty-seven  pupils, 
only  a  part  of  whom  are  residents.  The  children  are  treated  with 
quiet  kindness,  and  great  pains  are  taken  to  make  them  write  and 
read,  and  particularly  speak,  which  seems  here  the  touch-stone  of 
success  in  educating  them,  the  elementary  notions  of  objects, — form, 
color,  usage,  or  composition — are  not  neglected ;  but  an  appropriate 
occupation,  and  through  it  a  steady  habit  to  do  something  produc- 
tive of  good,  is  the  desideratum  to  which  the  main  efforts  tend.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  children  are  well  cared  for,  not  only  in  the  school  but 
out  of  it;  not  only  for  their  present  wants,  but  for  their  future  posi- 
tion and  happiness.  The  superintendent  and  his  efficient  (not  figure- 
head) trustees  are  in  direct  communication  with  families  willing  to 
take  an  idiot  as  an  apprentice,  at  first  for  a  few  hours  daily.  If  the 
arrangement  succeeds,  they  examine  the  pupil,  ascertain  his  progress, 
the  quantity  of  labor  exacted,  and  the  general  and  moral  character 
of  his  associations ;  and  when,  litde  by  little,  the  ties  which  connect 
the  child  with  the  institution  are  naturally  severed,  they  feel,  that 
they  have  not  only  educated  their  charge  to  the  best  of  his  and  their 
ability,  but  left  him  in  the  best  social  circumstances.  We  notice  this 
object,  and  this  sanctification  of  human  efforts  here,  more  than  any- 
where else. 

Each  of  these  institutions  will  leave  on  the  mind  of  the  visitor 
its  peculiar  impression ;  in  one  he  feels  the  motive  to  be  the  pride  of 
the  superior  officers ;  in  another,  the  happiness  of  the  children ;  in  a 
third,  a  desire  for  theatrical  effect ;  in  a  fourth,  a  sincere  Christian- 
ity ;  in  a  fifth,  a  cold  restraint  upon  the  recipients  of  care  or  of  alms. 

At  the  Hague  you  feel  that  the  children  are  educated  with  the 
intention  of  preparing  them  for  positions  which  will  suit  them  best  in 
a  society  of  kmd  practical  people.  Epileptics  are  not  admitted ;  that 
is  practical,  too. 

Thus,  we  have  here  in  close  contact  two  very  different  modes 
of  comprehending  our  subject.  On  the  eastern  side  oi  the  Scheldt, 
idiots  are  educated  as  brothers  and  sisters,  as  near  home  as  possible, 
are  cared  for  by  women,  and  prepared  for  a  future  commensurate  to 
their  powers  and  to  their  desires,  in  not  uncongenial  society.     On 


89    

the  western  side,  male  idiots  —  I  have  not  seen  the  girls  —  are  shut 
up,  in  the  hope  of  receiving  a  minimum  of  education  —  which  they 
do  not — ,  and  without  hope  of  seeing  a  mother's  face  —  instead  of 
which  they  see  a  male  keeper's.  The  Dutch  is  the  common-sense 
system;  the  Belgian  is  called  the  religious  and  Tiospitalicr . 

34.  French  schools  for  idiots.  Not  only  did  the  French 
open  the  first  public  school  for  idiots  in  1841  —  42  at  the  Hospice 
des  Incurables  de  la  rue  St.  Martin,  since  transferred  to  Bic^tre,  but 
they  produced  the  philosophical  history  of  the  Education  du 
Sauvage  de  V :^veyron  and  the  classical  treatise  on  the  Traite- 
ment  Moral,  Hygihie  et  Education  des  Idiots— ty^o  hooks, 
whose  onginality  and  priority,  arc  not  contested.  How  is  it,  then, 
that,  with  such  odds  in  their  favor,  the  French  officials  feel  so  nervous, 
when  they  are  asked  for  a  permit  to  visit  their  schools  for  idiots  ? 
There  was  a  time  when,  after  such  visits,  Horace  Mann  and  George 
Sumner  would  write  home,  that  Massachusetts  could  not  do  a  min- 
ute longer  without  a  school  for  idiots,  and  the  South-Boston  school 
was  voted  into  existence ;  Sagaert,  inspired  by  the  reports  of  the 
Hopital  des  Incurables,  opened  the  school  at  Berhn  ;  Prince  Albert 
created  Earlswood ;  Guggembul  was  the  only  one  who  never  heard 
or  read  about  Bic^tre,  and  behaved  accordingly. 

35.  School  for  idiotic  boys  at  bic^tre.  Why,  then, 
ashamed  of  that  school  ?  F'or  a  third  of  a  century,  it  has  had  the 
same  unique  teacher;  the  same  two  uniformed  attendants,  cap  in 
hand ;  the  same  musicians  playing  as  if  they  were  deaf,  though 
only  blind ;  the  same  school-material,  old  benches,  unique  black- 
boards, &c. ;  we  had  almost  said  the  same  pupils,  so  general  is 
the  sameness.     Everything  is  preserved  as  with  Rip  Van  Winkle. 

Let  us  look  more  closely.  There  are  sixty-four  children  ;  some 
idiots,  to  be  sure,  even  gateux',  but  fifty-two  epileptics.  Everybody 
knows  the  difference  in  regard  to  education.  Yet  a  visitor  coming, 
"En  avant  les  <^pilcptiquesF'  (Forward,  the  epileptics  1)  It  is 
not  the  fault  of  the  teacher;  it  is  the  rule.  Twenty  of  them  play 
on  musical  instruments ;  they  can  fence,  with  small  prospect  of  be- 
coming as  useful  to  their  country  as  either  of  the  Graniers  (de 
Cassagnac).  Well,  we  pass  on,  asking  for  true  idiots.  The  officials 
become  uneasy,  like  their  superior  of  the  Parvis  Notre  Dame  ;  they 
had  forgotten  the  idiots.  I  do  not  blame  the  teacher  personally, 
who  has  his  hands  more  than  full  with  the  sixty-four  pupils  of  all 
kinds.  On  the  contrary,  to  relieve  his  mind,  I  point  to  a  little  fellow, 
(aet.  10,)  and  ask  "What  is  the  matter  with  him?"  "A  very  low 
idiot."  "Is  he  educated  ?"  "Impossible!"  "Imitative?"  "He  is 
not."  "Move  his  fingers  on  command?"  "He  would  not  even 
look  at  you."  I  begged  permission  to  bring  the  boy  to  the  black- 
board. Putting  a  piece  of  chalk  in  his  hand,  having  one^  in  mine, 
I  drew  a  vertical  line — he  drew   another ;  a  horizontal  one   on  top 


90    

of  the  first — he  put  his  second  line  in  the  same  position  ;  an  oblique 
line  between  both  was  followed  by  him  in  the  same  direction.  There 
was  a  triangle  drawn  by  the  boy  who  "could  do  nothing;"  and  his 
eye  had  brightened,  demanding  more  exitement.  I  made  him  imi- 
tate some  movements  of  my  fingers.  For  charity's  sake,  I  did  not 
want  to  go  further,  and  understood — Rip  Van  Winkle.  He  awakes, 
sees  his  rifle,  tries  to  take  hold  of  it ;  but,  at  his  touch,  its  form 
crumbles.  So,  in  Bic^tre,  we  had  seen  the  form  [iniago)  of  the 
school  for  idiots ;  all  seemed  real,  but  it  fell  apart  the  moment  we 
tried  to  take  hold  of  it.  Teacher,  attendants,  children,  objects  were 
gathered  there,  as  formerly,  in  the  shape  of  a  school ;  but  the  co- 
hesive idea  of  physiological  education  no  longer  cemented  the  parts. 

This  is  said  in  justice  to  the  philosophical  idea,  which,  if  it  has 
dwindled  to  a  shadow  here,  has  become  a  living  thing  again  further 
on.  Let  me  say,  that  the  children  of  Bic^tre  —  I  do  not  say  idiots, 
since  they  are  mostly  epileptics  —  are  provided  for  at  the  public  ex- 
pense, kindly  treated  by  their  keepers,  well  fed  by  the  administration, 
and  worked  moderately,  though  not  in  view  of  an  apprenticeship. 
As  for  their  teacher,  M.  de  la  Porte,  his  devotion  to  such  a  task,  his 
power  of  keeping  in  adjustment  the  pieces  of  that  machinery — a 
school  for  idiots  minus  its  spirit — his  uniform  kindness  and  endur- 
ance, entitle  him  to  credit  for  uncommon  strength  and  faithfulness. 
Yet  the  dreary  task  must  have  its  attraction  in  the  fascinating  hope 
of  doing  some  good  to  the  motherless  idiots  of  the  French  hospitals 
for  the  Salp^triere  will  furnish  a  higher  example  of  devotion  to  them 
than  Bicetre. 

2,6.  School  for  idiotic  girls  at  the  Salp^tribre.  Although 
there  had  always  been  a  number  of  children  among  the  large  female 
population  of  the  Salpetriere,  no  special  school  was  appropriated  to 
them ;  and  they  certainly  received  no  special  training  touching  their 
infirmity,  until  the  success  of  the  school  of  Bicetre  rendered  unavoid- 
able the  establishment  of  a  similar  one  for  girls  at  the  Salpetriere. 
We  are  not  concerned  with  a  history  of  this  school,  only  with  its 
present  working  and  with  the  results  as  they  appear  to  an  outsider 
who  thinks  he  understands  the  subject. 

The  school  is  kept  in  a  low  and  dilapidated  building,  without 
partitions,  with  windows  and  doors  whose  cracks  are  blessings.  This 
mean  and  unique  class-room  is  (now  divided  into  two)  encumbered 
with  benches  and  a  few  desks ;  some  charts  and  pictures  hang  on 
the  wall.  There  is  no  room  for  exercises  of  imitation,  nor  for  co- 
ordinate and  group  movements ;  there  is  a  narrow  space  in  front  of 
the  blackboard.  Children  can  only  stand  or  sit  or — fall,  a  privilege 
not  easily  denied  to  epileptics;  and  there  are  twenty- five  of  them 
among  the  fifty  pupils.  —  The  other  half  is  composed  of  idiots  of 
various  grades,  some  aflicted  with  hemiplegia  and  other  accessory 
infirmities. 


To  grapple  wiili  tliese  anomalies,  and  to  educate  these  children 
trom  the  stand-point  of  their  individual  incapacity,  there  is  one 
teacher.  It  would  be  more  correct  to  say  the  half  of  one,  since  one- 
half  of  her  time  is  consumed  in  attending  the  falling  epileptics,  and 
in  other  cares  exacted  by  such  a  medley  of  infirmities.  I  have  seen 
her  during  a  short  visit,  twice  leave  a  lesson  to  take  the  head  of  an 
epileptic  between  her  knees,  to  protect  it  durmg  the  fits  from  being 
injured  by  striking  against  the  furniture,  and  then  resume  teaching. 
For  twenty-eight  years  Mile.  Nicolle  has  done  this  work,  at  a  salary 
of  30  francs  ($6)  a  month.  Recently,  she  has  been  given  for  an 
attendant  a  hall"-\Nitted  inmate  of  the  hospital.  After  six  hours  in 
the  school,  her  favorite  topic  of  conversation  is  the  improvement  of 
the  means  of  educating  her  children.  In  this  she  sometmies  suc- 
ceeds by  the  intensity  of  her  good  will,  and  sometimes  fails,  as  in  the 
adoption  of  the  p/fo/f ami m/e,  or  mimicry  of  letters  and  words,  a 
favorite  method  in  France,  but  requiring  different  signs  for  different 
languages,  and  inferior  in  other  respects  to  the  visible  Speech  of 
Melville  Bell.  But  Mile.  Nicolle  has  few  opportunities  of  learn- 
ing. No  library  is  attached  to  the  school ;  no  special  books  are 
supplied,  no  educational  newspapers ;  visitors  are  more  cunous  than 
learned.     Her  only  conversation  is  with  the  physician,  "chief  of  the 

service" ;  and  what  does  that  amount  to  ? He  is  only  visiting,  not 

resident. 

Dr.  de  Lassiauve  would  like  to  converse  with  the  good  Demoi^ 
selle  more  than  any  of  his  colleagues^  about  the  means  of  improv- 
ing the  children ;  he  contributed  to  the  Hterature  of  the  complex 
subject  (idiocy,  epilepsy,  insanity,  education)  se\eral  valuable  books 
and  pamphlets;  but  precisely  because  he  has  a  mind  of  his  own,  it  is 
easy  to  see,  when  he  passes  through  his  wards,  that  he  is  there  by 
toleration,  and  more  spied  upon  than  simply  watched.  This  is  made 
evident,  when,  speaking  of  some  needed  reforms,  he  suddenly 
chang«s  his  voice  to  a  whisper,  and  when,  approached  by  one  of  the 
nobodies  in  authority,  he  presses  the  arm  of  his  visitor  and  savs,  "I 
will  tell  you  later."     (He  has  since  been  obliged  to  resign). 

I  have  witnessed  the  painful  effects  of  this  administrative  terror- 
ism over  men  of  science  m  several  places,  as  at  the  Anticaille,  (Ly- 
ons), and  at  the  hospital  of  Charenton,  where  the  physician  made 
sure  that  two  doors  were  shut  between  us  and  official  listeners  before 
he  dared  to  speak  his  thoughts.  Under  such  pressure,  progress  can- 
not flow  even;  it  must  explode. 

I  heard  of  a  convent  in  the.  south  where  idiots  are  kejit;  I 
visite<l  a  private  school  for  idiots,  managed,  under  the  walls  of  Bi- 
cfitre,  by  Madam  and  M.  Baetge,  who  are  said  to  have  some  sixty 
pupils.  After  waiting  a  long  time,  1  was  shown  a  few  pupils,  their 
writing  and  drawing,  but  none  of  their  active  training,   nor  the  gen- 


eral  aspect  of  the  institution — its  face.  It  would  have  b<?cn  interest- 
ing to  compare  the  physiognomy  of  the  private  schools  for  idiots  at 
Gentilly,  France ;  at  Normanfield,  England ;  at  Barre,  Massachu- 
setts ;  and  at  Lakeville,  Connecticut,  not  only  among  themselves, 
but  with  the  public  institutions  of  the  same  class  in  the  same 
countries.  Drs.  Bourneville,  Charcot,  and  others,  having  recently 
visited  the  English  Institutions  for  idiots,  it  has  been  decided  to  or- 
ganize something  like  them  in  France ;  after  thirty-five  years  spent 
to  demonstrate  that  it  is  easier  to  steal  an  idea  than  to  comprehend  it. 

37.  English  schools  for  idiots.  These  schools  grew  from 
the  initiative  of  Miss  White,  of  Bath,  in  1846 ;  the  article  on  idiocy 
in  Chambers'  Edinburgh  Journal,  1847;  the  opening  of  the  Park- 
House-School,  Highgate,  by  Madam  Plumbe,  and  Drs.  Gascel,  An- 
drew Reed,  and  Connoly,  under  the  presidency  of  Sir  George  Car- 
roll, lord  mayor.  Money  did  the  rest.  Essex  Hall,  Colchester,  was 
given  ;  and  on  the  corner-stone  of  the  Earlswood  Asylum  ;£"io,ooo 
were  offered.     So  much  for  English  public  spirit. 

^S.  Eastern  Counties  Asylum  for  Idiots  and  Imbeciles, 
Essex  Hall,  Colchester. — There  were  in  this  asylum  ninety-eight 
idiots — sixty-seven  males  and  thirty-one  females.  Though  it  does 
not  differ  much  in  composition  from  other  institutions  of  that  kind — 
that  is  to  say,  it  has  about  the  same  proportion  of  idiots,  imbeciles, 
gate.UX->  para-  and  hemi-plegics,  &c. — one  can  feel  here  a  kind  of 
predominance  of  the  motionless  and  aged.  In  this  respect,  too, 
each  institution  has  its  own  character,  which  the  visitor  feels  almost 
from  his  entrance ;  and  when  entering  Essex  Hall,  one  feels  that  it  is 
eminently  an  asylum  and  a  retreat. 

This  peculiarity  noted,  let  us  look  at  the  routine  ;  not  for  itself, 
1  mt  for  a  few  of  its  features.  In  this  school  they  have  a  great  deal 
of  finger  and  imitation  exercise  which  prepares  to  pupils  for  draw- 
ing and  handicraft.  In  the  field,  emulation  and  activity  are  excited 
in  competitive  weeding;  and  at  home,  the  self -pride  and  taste  of  the 
children  are  stimulated  by  competition  in  the  art  of  dressing  them- 
selves, &c.  The  inmates  look  placidly  contented,  and  leave  the  im- 
pression that  their  superintendent  W.  Willard  and  the  ti-ustees  of 
Colchester  mean  to  have  them  so. 

39.  The  Earlswood  School,  in  Surrey,  a  suburb  of  the  great 
metropolis,  is  a  much  more  pretentious  affair.  In  size  and  in  num- 
ber of  pupils,  Earlswood  has  no  equal.  It  has  had  all  the  advan- 
tages that  money  can  bring  to  the  realization  of  an  idea ;  therefore, 
if  this  all  but  royal  institution  does  not  stand  first,  it  is  not,  as  with 
the  French  schools,  because  the  idea  struggled  vainly  against  penury 
and  oppression,  endeavoring  to  come  out  from  its  immateriality  into 
the  world  of  substance;  no,  it  is  because  the  idea  was  yet  immature 
among  the  English,  when  their  purse  and  will  were,  as  usual,  ready. 
They  had  determined  to  have  the  largest   institution  for  idiots,  and 


they  have  it, — to  build  a  monumental  school,  and  here  it  stands. 
So  much  for  an  external  antithesis  to  Bic^tre  and  the  Salpetriere ; 
but  inwardly  the  oldest  have  the  advantage  of  having  furnished  the 
young  institution  their  worst  models.  Like  Bicetre,  Earlswood  is 
managed  by  trustees — the  physician  subordinate,  the  teachers  sub- 
dued —  a  machine  run  by  men-power,  instead  of  an  organization 
resting  on  woman's  tenderness  and  jquick  perceptions,  and  philos- 
ophically directed  by  one  familiar  with  the  latest  investigations  of 
anthropology. 

Even  though  wishing  to  do  so,  I  could  not  give  an  exposition 
of  the  course  of  trainmg  in  all  the  schools  for  idiots ;  but  I  can,  for 
each,  map  out,  as  being  done  or  neglected,  certain  points  in  their 
mode  of  education  which  will,  in  due  course  of  this  survey,  appear 
as  the  summits  of  the  surveyed  grounds.  According  to  this  plan 
—  which  may  have  no  other  merit  than  its  necessity  —  I  have  al- 
ready brought  into  prominence  some  features  of  the  method  ;  and  I 
will  exhibit  two  more  about  the  mode  and  manner  of  the  teaching 
at  Earlswood. 

Modus  doccndi.  In  a  class  of  about  sixty  young  pupils,  read- 
ing was  taught  to  a  few  in  the  front ;  while  in  the  rear  sat  the  greater 
number,  slate  in  hand,  with  orders  to  copy  a  model  letter  set  before 
them. 

Let  us  first  premise  that  they  were  a  well  grouped  set  of  low 
though  educable  idiots  —  such  a  group  as  could  only  be  formed  out 
of  a  large  collet:tion,  and  by  a  judge,  probably  Dr.  Graham,  the 
physian-in-chief,  who  was  absent  during  my  visit.  The  moment 
that  I  saw  them  a  series  of  questions  arose  in  my  mind :  Was  it 
possible  for  these  children  to  draw  that  letter  ?  first,  at  such  a  dist- 
ance from  the  master;  third,  on  a  slate  balanced  on  the  knees; 
fourth,  with  a  pencil  hardly  leaving  a  trace  on  a  surface,  shppery 
from  long  use  ;  fifth,  with  a  feeble  and  unsteady  hand  for  want  of 
previous  exercise,  and  still  more  on  account  of  uncertainty  in  com- 
prehension, and  from  the  difficulty  attending  any  process  of  reasoning 
in  children,  having  lived  so  long  in  nihilism  and  acted  by  pure  au- 
tomatism ?  The  answer  to  all  these  questions  was  on  the  slates. 
These  were  covered  with  wandering  lines,  hardly  visible,  whose  char- 
acter —  where  any  could  be  distinguished  —  was  a  tendency  to  re- 
enter at  various  angles  the  center  of  the  plane,  after  meandering  in 
what  we  shall  call  curves,  simply  because  they  were  not  straight 
lines.  Indeed,  nothing  could  be  more  expressive  of  the  uncertainty 
of  the  hand  and  of  the  mind,  than  these,  at  first  sight,  unmeaning 
lines ;  for  they  spoke  eloquently.  They  told  that  at  this  point  of 
the  teaching,  the  teacher  must  be  close  to  the  pupil ;  his  hand  must 
move  in  the  desired  direction,  to  make  the  idiot's  hand  move  like- 
wise,  as  if  it  were  the  shadow  ;  the  plane,  besides  being  steady, 
must  present  itsrlf;dtno4  l^1.•nv(»id.•1ll1^    lu   the    wandering  gaze ;  the 


94    

pencil  must  easily  leave  a  strong  delineation;  the  required  lines  must 
be  simple,  and  their  succession  in  accordance  with  the  natural  order 
of  their  generation  on  the  plane.  Every  one  of  these  conditions  of 
success — let  us  say  more  —  of  these  elements  of  teaching  idiots  to 
draw  and  to  write,  was  scrupulously  avoided  in  Earls  wood.  Singu- 
larly enough,  they  were  blundering  at  the  point,  where  the  teacher 
of  Bic^tre  thought  nothing  could  be  attempted  ;  so  that,  at  this  di- 
viding line  which  separates  routine  teaching  from  physiological 
TRAINING,  the  English  could  not  see  the  line.  —  the  P'renchman 
felt  it,  and  knew  that  he  did  not  know  enough  to  cross  it. 

Earlwood,  five  years  later,  presented  a  more  natural  appearance  ; 
class  after  class,  headed  by  female  teachers,  commanded  attention. 
One  could  see  that  the  exercises  were  directed  toward  some  deficien- 
cies of  activity  or  of  understanding,  insdead  of  being  a  clumsy  imita- 
tion of  a  primary  departement ;  and  a  common  animus  was  felt  to 
pervade  the  details  of  the  curriculum.  The  children  were  generally 
interested,  as  well  as  the  teachers — each  with  an  earnestness  of  her 
own.  The  one  I  had  occasion  to  criticize  in  1873  was  there,  one  of 
the  most  efficient :  it  touches  us  to  the  quick,  when  in  a  defile  of 
that  sort,  we  see  the  "old  guard." 

The  Assistant  Physician  who  showed  me  through,  spoke  of  some 
fine  preparations  of  brains  of  idiots  whose  status  and  progress  had 
been  carefully  noted  during  several  years.  These  complete  mono- 
graphs will  help  to  estabHsh  the  relation  of  deficiencies  of  organs  to 
deficiencies  of  function. 

A  matter  of  great  interest  taught  at  Earlswood,  but  not  exclu- 
sively, —  for  I  have  seen  it  in  the  Pennsylvania  training-school  for 
feeble-minded  children,  managed  by  Dr.  Kerlin,  —  is  the  teaching 
OF  BUYING  AND  SELLING  in  a  storc-class-room,  where  the  children 
are  alternately  buyers  and  sellers.  In  the  New  York  State  School 
for  Idiots  there  is  not  such  formal  teaching  ;  but  the  children  who 
can  do  so,  are  sent  into  town  to  make  small  purchases,  m  order  to 
exercise  their  judgement  in  regard  to  the  money-value  of  things. 
This  teaching  is  rendered  the  more  necessary,  as  the  institudons  for 
idiots  become  larger  and  more  separated  from  the  world.  For,  if 
the  street-abandoned  idiot,  or  the  one  cared  for — but  not  educated — 
at  home,  or  the  one  free  in  his  movements  between  school- hours,  is 
left  liable  to  do  wrong  and  to  be  wronged — he  meets,  as  a  compensa- 
tion, with  ox)portunities  of  witnessing  many  transacdons — and  particu- 
larly of  comprehending  the  commercial  characters  of  exchange — im- 
possible  to  enumerate  ;  beginning,  if  you  please,  with  the  small  op- 
portunity of  buying  candy  or  chestnuts  for  a  penny.  But  the  idiot 
shut  up  in  a  perfectly  organized,  self-feeding  machine,  has  no  oppor- 
tunity of  conceiving  the  reciprocities  of  life  ;  he  cannot  help  feeling 
that  the  world — the  only  world  he  knows  —  is  made  for  him,  and 
that  it  is  for  him  to  receive  without  rendering  compensation ;  hence 


he  grows  up,  deprived  by  blind  charity  of  the  feeling  on  which  hinges 
morality;  and,  when  grown  up,  his  egolized  countenance  deprives 
him  of  a  good  deal  of  legitmiate  sympathy. 

Another  fault  of  large  institutions  is  training  children  for  show, 
in  two  ways  :  In  each  group  or  class  of  idiots  are  inserfjd  some  al- 
most ordinary  children — epileptic,  choreic,  or  hemiplegic — who  are 
pushed  forward  at  the  expense  of  the  time  and  skill  which  should  be 
devoted  to  the  bona-fide  idiots.  The  spurious  ones  answer  for  the 
rest,  to  difficult  questions.  But  even  this  concession  —  of  which  I 
have  seen  no  trace  in  the  school  of  Surrey,  though  I  have  of  the 
next — does  not  satisfy  the  craving  of  the  mass  of  visitors  for  some- 
thing wonderful ;  the  public  must  be  served  by  the  idiots  with  all 
kinds  of  sauces — musical,  arithmetical,  architectural  &c.  With  more 
money,  and  time  stolen  from  the  legitimate  training  of  all  the  pupils. 
It  is  easy  to  hnd  among  them  some  one  with  a  gift  salient  over  the 
wTeck  of  the  other  faculties,  and  to  set  them  up  as  tne  great  attrac- 
tion for  idlers  and  a  living  prospectus  for  the  school.  They  are,  and 
will  be,  nothing  else.  The  gift  thus  developed,  at  the  expense  of 
their  own,  and  of  the  general  training,  will  never  serve  the  gifted ;  it 
can  but  be  wondered  at,  and  they,  being  the  more  pitied  for  it. 
This  evil  practice  is  not  confined  to  Earlswood ;  other  schools  for 
idiots  have  their  pet  mathematicians,  &c.  ;  good-for-nothing,  ordin- 
ary schools  and  universities,  too,  cultivate  these  unhealthy  products. 
Once  used  for  show,  the  child  is  used  up  for  life  :  This  is  not  educa- 
tion, but  holocaust. 

40.  Lancaster  school.  The  Lancaster  institution  was  hard- 
ly finished,  when  I  visited  it  in  1873.  It  is  built  on  a  scale  which  re- 
calls to  the  mind  that  of  Columbus,  Ohio.  Like  this,  it  is  richly  en- 
dowed with  money,  and  with  pleasure  and  farming  grounds  ;  unlike 
it,  it  is  erected  and  endowed  by  private  citizens,  M.  DeVitrey  at 
their  head,  who,  like  true  English  gentry,  believe  in  self  and  do  not 
beg  from  tne  government.  These  fine  buildings  contain  about  three 
hundred  pupils,  and  may  accomodate  six  hundred.  The  school  has 
a  physician  for  its  chief,  and  a  large  body  of  female  teachers  and 
attendants,  as  in  America.  The  teaching  does  not  differ  much  from 
ours,  although  it  is  yet  more  scholastic  in  form.  The  director.  Dr. 
Shuttleworth,  seems  determined  to  carry  it  strictly  on  the  physiolo- 
gical plan.  I  think,  he  will  partially  succeed,  though  there  are  diffi- 
culties in  his  way ;  I  mean  doctrinal  ones :  for  instance,  in  Lancaster, 
as  in  other  parts  of  England,  they  do  not  seem  to  attach  sufficient 
importance  to  that  period  of  the  education  which  corresponds  in  the 
idiot,  with  that  which  I  will  venture  to  call  the  building  mania  in 
the  infancy  of  peoples.  If  we  can  make  the  pupil  enter  upon  this 
period,  and  if  we  awaken  that  taste  in  him,  he  may,  through  it,  be 
carried  to  the  conception  of  higher  combinations  of  parts  to  form 
a     whole  ;   besides  acquiring,     in    various     attitudes,    operations 


96    

and  manipulations  of  the  isiateriel,  the  physical  aptitudes  compre- 
hended in  the  word  dexterity. 

At  the  threshold  of  the  school  proper,  they  do  not  seem  to 
understand  that  filiation,  and  therefore  that  rational  progression, 
which  gives  precedence  to  the  systematic  movements  of  the  body 
— early  concentrated  in  the  hand  —  over  drawing,  of  drawing  over 
Avriting,  of  writing  over  reading;  it  is  almost  the  reverse  order  that 
obtains,  unless,  as  in  the  majority  of  instances,  there  is  no  order  at 
all,  either  practiced  or  suspected.  So  much  for  the  innocence  of 
the  teacher  of  innocents,  (name  of  the  idiots  m  the  Alps ;  also 
Chretiens,  cretins.) 

A  more  serious  obstacle  to  the  plans  of  the  young  and  capable 
superintendent  are  the  English  customs,  which  stand  in  the  way  like 
dolmen.  At  first  glance,  I  could  see  that  one  of  them  was  incorpo- 
rated m  the  new  building,  in  the  shape  of  a  magnificent  dining-room 
for  a  thousand  people,  or  so.  From  the  gallery  above,  it  looked  like 
a  sea,  whose  undulating  billows  were  figured  by  the  alternate  benches 
and  tables;  when  the  three  hundred  pupils  came  and  sat  close  to- 
gethei,  they  darkened  only  a  small  square  of  this  area.  All  was 
orderly  and  neat  along  these  long  rows ;  but  how  could  the  children 
enjoy  such  automatic  eating  otherwise  than  in  the  sensation  of  filling 
up  ?  What  idiots  desire  as  much,  and  need  more  than  ourselves,  is 
to  take  their  meals  around  a  circular  or,  better,  an  oval  table, 
grouped  by  affinities  ;  their  attendant  acting  the  part  of  the  mother, 
and  the  best  (in  both  senses)  pupils  helping  the  helpless,  thereby 
giving  to  themselves  and  to  others  a  tangible  example  of  practical 
morality ;  instead  of  this,  the  fine  hall  becomes  that  communistic 
manger,  which  it  is  in  many  celebrated  colleges. 

41.  NoRMAN-FiELD  ScHOOL. — England  looks  nowhere  more 
proud  than  in  her  littlenesses  and  infirmities  ;  when  she  is  great,  her 
grandeur  does  not  need  padding.  The  pride  here  referred  to  is  well 
illustrated  by  the  sumptuousness  of  her  retreats  for  the  insane  of 
BLOOD,  and  her  school  for  idiots  pur-sang.  The  institution  of  Nor- 
man Field  is  a  model  of  this  kind.  It  has  the  other  merit  of  being 
supervised  by  one  of  those  rare  men  who  have  taken  hold  of  the 
subject  of  idiocy  in  some  of  its  relations  to  anatomo-physiology,  and 
managed  by  one  of  those  ladies,  who  make  doubly  sure  the  success 
of  their  husbands.  Dr.  Langdon  Down,  when  at  the  head  of  Earls- 
wood,  made  extensive  researches  on  the  malformation  of  the  mouth 
of  idiots,  and  has  since  embodied  them  in  a  valuable  book.  MM. 
Th.  Ballard  and  Callaway  claim  for  themselves  and  for  Connolly  the 
priority  of  such  observations,  and  of  the  demonstjation  of  the  arrest 
of  development  of  the  sphenoid  m  idiots,  &c. ;  and  Bourneville,  in 
his  memoir  on  the  condition  of  the  mouth  of  idiots,  quotes  twenty 

))assages  from  the  French  book,  Traitewcnt  moral,  TiygHne  ct 
Hill  cat  ion  dcs  idiots  (Paris,  1846);  and  says  (page  7)  that  (Lang- 


don  Down  could  claim  the  priority  of  this  observation,  if  Seguin  had 
not  preceded  him  by  more  than  fifteen  years."  Seguin  knows  by 
experience  how  often  number  two  forgets  the  name  of  number  one, 
exprv-^sses  his  approbation  of  the  work  of  Down,  and  hopes  that  its 
author,  being  now  at  the  head  of  an  institution  where  mony  is  plenty 
and  individual  observation  possible,  will  soon  be  able  to  complete 
his  work  by  applying  his  anatomical  researches  and  mensurations, 
to  the  practical  teaching  of  speech  to  idiots,  and  to  the  correction 
of  the  defects,  imperfections,  and  difliculties  of  speech  met  with  in 
ordinary  schools.  For  this  complementary  labor,  Norman  Field  is 
the  place,  and  Dr.  Langdon  Down  seems  to  be  the  man  ;  the  last 
becomes  the  first,  when  he  does  best. 

42 — I  was  very  sorry  that  I  could  not  visit  in  1877  ^^^  Scotch 
institution  of  Larberg,  whose  Supenntendent  gave  so  much  eclat  to 
our  last  visit  of  Lancaster,  nor  the  Institution  of  Dublin  ;  but  it  was 
my  pleasure  and  profit,  to  see  twice  the  Metropolitan  District  Asylum 
of  Clapton,  a  provisional  establishment,  now  vacated  by  the  transfer 
of  its  326  inmates  to  the  new  Institution  of  Darenth,  —  the  plan  of 
which  is  recommended  by  the  London  Charity  Organization 
Committee  as  a  model  for  the  other  asylums  to  be  erected  for  Idiots 
around  London. 

There  was  a  covered  play-ground,  heated  by  warm  water  for 
the  gloomy  days;  and  beautiful  open  grounds,  where — when  the 
English  sun  shines — and  it  shines  oftener,  than  it  gets  credit  for — , 
the  children  spend  most  of  the  time  on  the  grass,  under  cover  of  tall 
old  shrubs ;  the  youngest  and  most  crippled  with  their  nurses ;  others 
playing  or  lounging ;  the  bulk  attending  school  and  going  through 
their  various  exercises  in  the  open  air  with  the  utmost  propriety. 
The  exercises  and  studies  are  varied  as  in  Columbus,  and  the  half- 
hour  rotadon  system  reminds  one  of  Syracuse,  but  with  an  over- 
whelming British  personality.  AH  teachers  are  females  except  the 
gymnast.  There  are  five  classes  or  rather  groups,  in  which  130 
pupils  attend  in  the  morning  and  in  the  after-noon ;  79  attend  for 
half  the  time;  57  one  hour  and  a  half  in  the  morning  and  in  the 
after-noon,  4  attend  occasionally. 

In  the  intervals  of  these  short  or  rare  attendances,  the  boys 
learn  tailoring  and  shoemaking,  the  girls  house-work,  sewing  &c. 
Kindergarten-games  and  toys  play  an  important  part  in  their  educa- 
tion. The  children  often  receive  presents  in  that  line,  showing  that 
their  neighbors  understand  their  wants ;  for,  as  their  kind  teacher. 
Miss  Stephens  said,  "many  children  who  seem  very  apathetic, 
brighten  at  the  sight  of  a  doll." 

The  Superintendent,  Dr.  Fletcher  Beach,  has  completed  several 
obsei'vations,  and  commenced  more,  which  cannot  be  completed 
until  after  the  demise  of  their  subjects.  He  has  also  dismissed  five 
cases,  sufficiently  improved,    to    take  care   of  themselves;    without 


abandoning  them  however,  but  following  them  up  to  protect  them, 
if  need  be ;  to  see  that  their  improvement  lasts,  and  is  sufficient  to 
carry  them  through  the  world. 

43.  In  the  meanwiiile,  the  Charity  Organization  CommitteEj 
(which  I  have  just  named),  after  inquiries  made  in  P2urope,  Asia,  and 
America,  demanded — and  obtained — from  Parliament  the  enactment 
of  a  law,  by  which  England  binds  herself  to  supply  the  wants  and 
the  means  of  education  for  her  idiotic  children.  Kentucky  had 
provided  for  their  education  ;  but  this  double  gift,  bestowed  during 
their  life-time  on  more  than  36,000  unfortunates  —  ^vhom  economists 
would  call  houches-inu tiles — is  a  greater  })roof  of  the  strength  and 
power  of  a  government  than  any  heretofore  given  ;  besides  showing 
the  immense  moving  power  of  morality  in  this  so-called  immoral 
world.  The  nation  who  will  do  so  much  for  the  incapable  and 
needy,  will  do  much  more  for  her  active  and  intelligent  children  ; 
and  we  hope  with  confidence  that,  m  her  training-sciiools  of  idiots, 
England  will  evolve  the  best  methods  for  educating  her  best  men 
and  women  to  the  highest  standard  of  excellence. 

44.  Swiss  Cretins.  — It  is  only  in  1877,  that  I  saw  them.  As 
a  kind  of  idiots,  they  interested  me.  Their  improvement  by  hygienic 
and  educational  measures,  though  begun  early,  has  not  yet  recovered 
from  the  discredit  brought  on  it  by  the  reports  of  Guggenbiihl. 
Since  the  Abendberg  explosion  there  is  only,  to  my  knowledge,  one 
institution  of  that  sort  in  the  cantons,  that  of  Dr.  Zimmer  at  Etoy, 
which  has  only  sixteen  pupils,  capable  of  improvement ;  though  Cret- 
ins seem  not  as  much  improvable,  nor  by  the  same  means  as  idiots  ; 
but  cretinism  is  vastly  more  preventable  than  idiocy ;  its  causes,  as 
far  as  known,  being  tangible  and  modifiable. 

From  my  own  observation,  cretins,  (unless  imported)  are  neither 
found  at  the  foot,  nor  at  the  top  of  the  mountains,  but  midway. 
They  do  not  seem  to  be  the  product  of  any  one  cause,  but  of  a 
variety  of  causes. 

The  soil  on  which  they  grow,  is  not  necessarily,  though  frequent- 
ly, magnesian  ;  but  the  waters  are  almost  everywhere  filtered  from 
snow-capped  ranges.  The  houses,  or  rather  huts,  are  overhung  with 
trees  or  vines  and  covered  with  damp  vegetation,  even  with  mosses ; 
the  doors  are  never  kept  open ;  the  windows,  mere  mole-holes,  often 
not  a  foot  square  neither  giving  ingress  to  the  air,  nor  egress  to  the 
animal  emanations  on  which  the  inmates  rely  for  heat.  Badly  and 
insufficiently  fed,  eating — often  with  their  hands — from  a  common 
wooden  trough,  isolated  from  the  world,  and  gathered  by  day  on  and 
by  night  in  the  same  bed,  with  hardly  enough  of  light  from  a  smo- 
king  Luzotfe  to  distinguish  one  from  the  other ;  it  would  be  useless 
to  search  their  habits  for  a  ray  of  morality.  Women  are  cumulative- 
ly employed  as  beasts  of  burden,  as  things  to  be  used,  and  to  make 
money  with.     Of  all  ages,  they  are  sent  to  the  vine-yard  on  the  side 


of  the  mountain,  carrying  on  their  backs  loads  of  manure  and  stones, 
digging  and  trimming   vines  all  day,    with  insufficient   food. 

Girls  thus  worn  out  when  hardly  of  age,  are  sent  as  servants 
abroad  and  come  back  enceinte;  in  which  condition  they  are  sent 
again  to  the  mountain  to  dig,  ill-fed,  ill-treated,  reproached.  Soon 
sent  away  again,  they  return  with  another  child.  And  what  of 
these  children  ?  Entrusted  to  the  lowest  bidder,  never  put  to  the 
breast,  hardly  nourrished,  never  washed,  only  wiped  and  beaten,  no 
carresses,  no  bright  look  nor  smile  meeting  their  eye,  left  in  the  cold 
and  in  the  dark :  their  temperature  falls  below  the  norm  of  the 
species ;  their  skin  hardens  and  thickens  as  in  the  scleroma  neo- 
natorum ;  the  extremeties,  deprived  of  peripheric  circulation,  shrink 
and  shorten,  becoming  clumsy  and  stumpy  ;  and  the  tongue  itself, 
the  only^  thing  to  be  sucked  for  many  a  hungry  hour,  swollen  by  the 
process,  thickened  out  of  the  mouth,  bulges  forward,  and  often  pushes 
down  teeth  rendered  useless  by  the  complete  privation  of  masticable 
food.  As  for  the  head,  only  low  and  poor,  it  is  made  to  appear 
monstrous  by  the  thick  sutures  of  the  cranium,  which  like  the  articu- 
lations are  swollen  after  the  manner  of  burnt  alum. 

After  these  general  remarks,  it  would  be  useless  horror  to  de- 
scribe the  cretins  of  Sion  otherwise  than  by  saying  that,  though 
each  has  his  characteristic  physiognomy  and  his  peculiar  infirmities, 
they  come  under  a  common  mild  standard  which  may  be  represented 
by  the  word  "deficiency". 

There  are  generally  several  cretins  in  a  family ;  not  necessarily 
bom  in  succession,  but  oftener  in  alternation  with  ordinary,  very 
ordinary  children.  Goitre  is  an  accessory  of  cretinism  oftener  than 
cretinism  is  of  goitre :  the  latter  being  an  appendage  which  disap- 
pears where  wine  is  drunk  instead  of  snow-water. 

Not  to  complete,  but  to  help  the  understanding  of  the  nature  of 
this  disease,  one  must  look  higher  in  the  mountains,  where  men  seen 
only  through  a  spy-glass,  look  actually  smaller  than  ants  at  our  feet. 
They  make  charcoal  of  old  forests,  whose  remaining  clusters  of  trees 
look  Hke  moss  patches  scattered  on  sand.  They  slide  the  coal  down 
the  mountain-sides,  shyly  hastening  back  from  the  scarce  purchasers ; 
and  if  a  stray  chamois-hunter  approaches  in  want  of  some  necessity 
of  life,  the  family  run  away,  and  shut  themselves  up  in  terror. 

Not  long  ago  a  benevolent  person  established  a  school  among 
those  mountainers,  but  several  years  elapsed  before  a  child — cham- 
ois-like— could  be  caught  in  that  "trap"-school ;  and  even  now  few 
willingly  submit  to  the  awful  mysteries  of  the  alphabet.  —  There  are 
other  causes  at  work  ;  but  this  is  enough  to  demonstrate  the  influ- 
ence of  the  surroundings  on  cretinism,  and  how  by  changing  these 
surroundings  —  physiological  and  educational — not  only  cretins  may 
be  improved,  but  cretinism  must  become  a  phantom  of  the  past. 

(10) 


100   

45-  Italian  Cretins.  1  have  not  seen  those  of  the  Tyrol,  but 
those  of  Piedmont.  In  the  Hospital  St,  Vincent  de  Pole  they  are 
gathered  in  great  number.  Some  of  them  do  not  differ  from  those 
ot  Martigny  and  Sion,  but  the  majority  do :  they  appear  as  a  mix- 
ture of  the  alpine  types  and  of  the  varieties  of  poly-idiocy,  resulting 
from  hydro  and  micro-cephaly,  chorea,  epilepsy,  deafness,  &c.,  — 
hybrid  inmates  of  our  own  Institutions. 

In  regard  to  the  management  of  these  children,  there  is  in  that 
hospital  so  much  of  good  and  of  evil  blended  with  a  venerable  tra- 
dition that,  where  it  not  for  truth's  sake,  I  should  refrain  from  re- 
vealing all. 

These  children,  like  their  congeners  of  our  Institutions  can  be 
divided,  almost  by  sight  in  five  categories  :  i)  Those  who  can  do 
very  little ;  yet  work  about,  mutter  a  few  words  or  syllables,  and  help 
themselves  to  anything  (I  would  not  say  eatable)  which  they  can 
swallow.  2)  The  paraplegics,  and  the  like,  who  remain  where  they 
are  put,  balancmg  their  body  back  and  forth,  and  sucking  or  biting 
their  hands  in  a  flood  of  saliva  amidst  unique  or  rhythmic  groans. 
3)  The  idiots  proper,  whose  characteristic  is  an  almost  general  un- 
dergrowth of  organs  and  diminution  of  functions.  4)  The  peculiar 
cases,  characterized  by  deprivation  or  excess  of  some  aptitude,  and 
which  are  not  so  varied  nor  so  numerous  here,  as  in  more  civilized  (so 
called)  societies.  5)  The  last  class  comprises  the  ordinary  medley  of 
epileptics,  choreics,  hemiplegics,  ^,§-legged,  ^J-armed,  other  wise  de- 
formed, half  or  totally  blind  or  mute,  mentall)  queer  or  mor-ally  crook- 
ed, insane  or  insanoid,  who  variegate  the  monotony  of  the  whole. 

Whatever  might  be  said  to  the  contrary,  there  never  was  a  true 
school  for  idiots — except  a  very  recent  imitation  of  ours —  ;  but  a 
kind  of  training  to  usefulness,  extremely  laudable,  when  it  is  not 
made  subservient  to  schemes  of  moral  depravity. 

The  first  category,  and  some  children  of  the  third,  fourth,  and 
fifth  help  part  of  the  others  to  eat,  dress,  be  cleaned,  moved,  &c. 
It  is  instructive  and  touching  to  see  an  idiot  button  the  garment  of 
others,  when  he  can  hardly  do  the  same  for  himself,  or  introduce  the 
wooden  spoon  into  the  mouth  of  companions  more  infirm  than  him- 
self, just  to  the  point,  where  experience  taught  him  that  automatic 
deglutition  becomes  possible,  he  himself  swallowing  a  few  spoonfuls 
of  the  porridge  by  way  of  encouragement,  or  otherwise. 

The  other  employment  of  the  less  sluggish  of  these  children  is  to 
assist  in  the  manufacture  of  millions  of  tracts,  whose  teaching  is 
threefold  ;  the  substitution  of  saints  to  God,  the  incarnation  of  God 
in  the  priest,  the  substitution  of  miracles  to  the  natural  laws,  which 
are  God's  laws.  To  make  the  cretins  parties  to  this  three-lobed 
sacrilege,  in  order  to  keep  their  brothers  of  the  mountains  below  in 
an  imbecile  submission  but  one  step  remote  from  idiocy,  is  a  refine- 
ment of  communistic  equality,  which  can  hardly  be  called  education 


101 


CHAPTER  II. 


American  Schools  for  Idiots. 

The  schools  at  Barre,  Syracuse,  Media,    Columbus,   and  Frank/art. — Prominent 
points  of  training  and  their  application. —  Conclusions, 

The  American  schools  for  idiots,  Columbus  excepted,  are  not 
as  large  as  the  English,  but  they  are  more  numerous;  their  buildings 
and  grounds  are  as  fine  and  large  in  proportion  ;  their  teaching  is 
much  more  feminine — that  is  to  say,  gentle,  breeding  more  gentle- 
ness in  the  pupils.  In  details  they  bear  a  comparison,  which  we 
will  begin  by  contrasting  the  oldest  American  pnvate  institution  with 
the  private  English  school  of  Norman  Field  previously  noticed. 

46.  Barre  School. —  This  school,  the  first  in  America,  was 
opened  by  Dr.  H.  B.  Wilbur,  July,  1848.  Soon  Boston  had  hers. 
Wilbur  founded  the  New  York  State  Institution  :  other  states  follow- 
ed, so  that,  if  England  has  the  largest  charity  organization  for  idiots, 
this  republic  has  yet   the  greatest  number  of  well-appointed  schools. 

Barre  is  an  old  New  England  scattered  village,  and  its  institu* 
tion  for  idiots  is  a  collection  of  well-appointed  buildings,  some  on 
the  turf,  others  under  the  trees,  or  basking  m  the  sun.  The  main 
structure  looks  from  its  pillared  stoop  over  a  large  shallow  basin  of 
flowers,  bordered  with  turf,  and  guarded  by  broad  edges  and  lanceol- 
ate evergreens.  Houses  and  cottages  are  situated  on  the  undula- 
tions of  a  healthy  plateau,  with  a  sa/lS  faCO/l  indicative  of  a  family 
affair.  How  different  from  the  stately  mansion  of  Norman  Field, 
where  everything  is  reduced  to  a  unity,  and  all,  even  idiocy,  looks 
proud. 

According  to  my  comprehension  of  a  private  institution,  sev- 
eral buildmgs  are  more  favorable  than  one  to  improve  the  condition 
of  the  pupils.     In  this  almost  cottage-like  arrangement,  the  children 


102   

who  come  for  a  home  find  an  apartment  and  a  kind  woman,  who, 
to  a  degree,  keeps  house  for  one,  two,  or  three  of  them ;  while  those 
more  seriously  crippled,  and  those  momentarily  sick,  sleep  and  live  in 
the  main  building,  under  the  personal  care  of  Madam  Brown,  who 
hears  and  comprehends  their  noises,  and  sees  to  their  wants.  Those 
belonging  to  these  two  categories  are  thirty -four;  and  those 
who  come  to  the  school  for  education,  thirty-six  boys  and  girls,  live 
more  or  less  privately  ;  and  are  educated  more  or  less  individually, 
according  to  their  wants  and  to  their  means,  by  twelve  men  and 
thirty-eight  lady  teachers  or  women  assistants.  This  force  is  the 
wealth  of  the  place;  and  with  it  the  immobile  may  be  moved,  if 
humanly  possible. 

47.  New  York  State  Institution  for  Idiots.  —  A  con- 
trast to  that  of  Barre,  that  of  Syracuse  being  largely  supported  by 
the  State,  makes  no  difference  among  the  pupils  on  account  of  their 
pecuniary  position,  but  groups  them  according  to  the  requirements 
of  their  incapacity.  The  compactness  of  the  building  corresponds 
with  the  unity  of  plan  of  the  institution,  and  its  interior  divisions 
with  the  forms  of  training ;  so  that  its  architecture  is  hke  a  glossary 
of  the  method.  In  this  respect,  this  creation — without  precedent — 
of  the  mind  of  Wilbur  is  most  remarkable.  The  erection  of  this 
building,  in  1854,  was  indeed  an  important  event,  considering  the 
complex  demand  on  the  ingenuity  of  the  constructor,  and  the  natur- 
al pressure  exerted  by  Stones  on  ideas. —  For  in  charity,  art,  science, 
and  education,  if  ideas  create  architecture,  architecture  re-acts  upon 
its  mother-ideas  to  develop,  distort  or  kill  them ;  as  appears  by  the 
retrograde  influence  exercised  in  our  time  on  the  treatment  of  the 
insane  by  the  form  of  their  asylums ;  so  that  it  is  strictly  true  that, 
a  monument  erected  for  cJie  development  of  an  idea  may 
become  its  empty  sarcophagus.— ' 

This  was  avoided  in  Barre  and  Syracuse,  both  building  and  ac- 
commodations being  non-committal  in  style,  and  yet  sufficient  for 
their  respective  destinations,  as  differentiated  in  the  following  re- 
marks : 

It  was  empirically  admitted  that  some  idiots  can  be  better  im- 
proved by  general  training,  and  some  by  individual  training.  The 
fitness  of  either  process,  exclusively  applied,  or  its  preponderance  in 
education,  may  be  deduced  from  the  observation  of  special  cases ; 
and  m  doubtful  ones  a  trial  of  both  processes  may  be  resorted  to,  to 
determine  which  is  preferable.  But  experience  has  shown  that,  aside 
from  peculiarities  among  the  laboring- classes — who  know  of  civiliza- 
tion only  by  its  hardships  and  sufferings — idiocy  is  found  among 
them  in  its  simplest  and  most  easily  recognized  forms,  the  sthenic  and 
asthenic,  and  is  therefore  more  amenable  to  the  influence  of  a  gen- 
eral training,  like  the  one  given  in  a  State  charitable  institution ;  on 
the  other  hand,  among  the  wealthier  classes,  idiocy  and  imbecility — 


108  

being  the  result  of  multitudinous  causes,  mostly  of  sympathetic  im- 
pressions bearing  on  the  womb  and  its  modes  of  nutrition  in  preg- 
nancy— present  much  more  varied  characters,  are  frequently  aggrav- 
ated by  accessory  diseases,  and  also  complicated  with  semi-capacities 
and  disordered  instincts;  they  are,  therefore,  represented  by 
these  heterogeneous  cases  which  can  be  favorably  modified,  if  at  all, 
by  individual  training.  Though  this  multiform  idiocy  gives  rise  to 
the  most  interesting  parts  of  our  inquiry  on  the  methods  of  education, 
we  can  only  refer  to  the  examples  furnished  by  the  private  schools 
of  Dr.  Langdon  Down,  of  Dr.  Geo.  Brown,  of  Barre,  of  Dr. 
Knight  of  Lakeville,  to  some  rare  monographs  like  the  ResUTJl^ 
de  ce  que  nous  avons  fait  pendant  quatorze  mois,  by  Esquirol 
and  Seguin,  Paris,  1839,  ^"^  Eight  Months  of  the  Trai7ii?ig  of  the 

Hand,    by    Miss    M ,  from  which  I   will  have  occasion  to 

quote. 

It  is  in  Syracuse  that  the  general  training  received  early  its  most 
systematic  shape,  in  group-form,  and  in  rotation.  There  this  system 
embraces  seven  teachers,  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  pupils,  and 
more  than  forty  different  exercises,  (irrespective  of  the  shops,  field, 
garden,  farm,  and  house  occupations).  These  seven  groups  are 
made  and  broken  every  thirty  minutes,  six  times  in  the  morning  and 
three  times  in  the  after-noon ;  this  is  movement  for  the  inactive,  ob- 
jects for  the  aimless,  and  regularity  for  the  unruly.  The  able  di- 
rector of  the  Clapton  (now  Darenth)  Asylum,  near  London,  has 
adopted  this  rotation  system,  and  others  have  more  or  less  borrowed 
from  it. 

But  the  culminant  initiative  of  Syracuse — which  became  a  law 
in  similar  institutions  —  was  the  complete  entrusting  of  the  children 
to  female  attendants  and  teachers ;  all,  but  the  head  gymnast  and 
superintendent.  Chief  among  other  advantages,  female  vigilance 
makes  it  possible  to  keep  the  boys  and  girls  togeiher  at  work  and 
play  without  inconvenience,  and  to  great  advantage  in  morals  and 
manners. 

48.  Pennsylvania  Training-school. — In  Media  the  Penn- 
sylvania training-school  presents  a  fine  specimen  of  training,  or 
entrainement,  as  the  French  have  it.  About  sixty  children,  in 
geometrical  arrangement  and  isolated,  execute  movements  timed  by 
the  piano  or  by  their  own  songs,  and  pointed  out  by  a  monitor 
whose  indicator-pole  passes  from  one  to  another  of  the  diagramatic 
representations  of  exercises  painted  on  the  large  frieze  around  the 
hall.  To  a  person  not  familiar  with  the  swiftness  of  the  niluence  of 
example  on  the  imitative  faculties,  it  is  perfecdy  incomprehensible  how 
these  idiots,  a  moment  ago  limp  in  their  postures  and  movements, 
now  assume  attitudes  and  develop  poses,  some  of  which  artists  would 
not  disdain.     Yet  this  grace  is  as  physological  as  their  previous  awk- 


104  

wardness ;  the  latter  resulting  from  the  absence  of  inward  stimulus, 
the  former  produced  by  a  sympathy  of  peripheric  origin ;  idiots, 
as  we  call  them,  before  and  above  being  idiots,  are  human  beings,  that 
is,  individuals  capable  of  being  sympathetically  connected  with  their 
kind  ;  the  link  is  to  be  found — that  is  the  key  to  their  education — 
through  general  training. 

The  hand  receives  a  great  deal  of  attention  in  Media.  It  is 
exercised  by  initiation,  and  in  the  symmetric  occupations  of  the  kin- 
dergarten. It  has  to  do  all  sorts  of  things,  from  picking  up  and 
carrying  stones,  bricks,  wood,  dirt  and  coal,  to  the  minutiae  of 
house-work.  For  the  sake  of  its  education,  no  machine  is  used  to 
do  what  the  hand  can  do  ;  time  is  no  object  but  the  acquisition  of 
dexterity  is.  That  is  the  secret  of  the  creditable  display  of  hand- 
work made  by  this  Institution  at  the  Philadelphia  Centennial  Exhi- 
bition of  1876.  The  diminutive  imitation  of  utensils  was  much  ad- 
mired, and  had  this  mterest,  among  others,  that  they  bore  a  strikmg 
analogy  of  taste  or  style,  to  the  ceramic  of  the  South  Americans, 
and  of  the  circum-aegean  prehistoric  artists. 

49.  Ohio  State  training-sehool. — In  the  Ohio  State  insti- 
tution for  idiots  at  Columbus  may  be  seen  fine  illustrations  of  a  sim- 
ilar training  of  the  hand,  arriving  at  the  same  results  of  totality, 
though  by  different  processes.  For,  before  the  hand  can  be  trained 
in  general  imitation-exercises — please  bear  in  mind  the  clumsy,  and 
unmanageable  hand  of  the  idiot — it  must  receive  a  patient  individ- 
ual training  of  its  totality  and  of  its  several  parts  :  These  hand- 
movements, — which  proceed  exclusively  from  the  spine, — which  are 
the  result,  first,  of  a  delicate  sensory  perception;  secondly,  of  a 
localized  volition ;  and  thirdly,  of  a  controlling  muscular  sense, 
(leaving  in  the  shade  some  intermediate  agencies).  They  become 
more  and  more  subordinate,  till  a  single  phalanx  of  a  finger  cannot 
be  moved  without  the  previous  exercise  of  the  higher  faculties ;  and 
groups  of  children  cannot  imitate  the  smallest  movement  of  the  hand 
of  the  teacher  without  a  concurrence  of  volitions  and  neurosies — 
which  is  human  electricity  in  action.  (But  our  remarks  become  so 
general,  that  they  apply  to  the  training  in  all  the  schools,  named  or 
not,  which  follow  the  physiological  method. 

50.  Some  Points  of  the  physiological  training  of  Idiots. 
a  !  The  idiotic  hand  is  as  idiotic  as  the  brain,  since  the  functions 
of  the  peripheric  nerves  are  as  much  affected  as  those  of  the  cen- 
ters. Too  much  care  and  time  cannot  be  bestowed  upon  the  making 
of  that  hand.  When  a  child  begins  to  imitate  movements  of  to- 
tality, the  teacher  sets  him  apart  to  make  him  imitate  those  of  the 
arm,  wrist,  fingers,  &c.,  gradually  ;  simple  and  slow  at  first,  then 
rapid  and  complicated.  When  two  children  have  been  evenly  drilled 
in  these  movements  a  third  one  slower  than  they  may  be  placed  be- 
tween them  in   the   exercises,    to   be  carried  on  (entrain^)  by  the 


105   

swiftness  of  perception  and  volition  of  his  mates ;  several  such 
groups  being  brought  together  {rapproc/l<^s)  are  formed  in  front  of 
the  teacher,  either  in  a  gende  curve  or  in  two  or  three  rows,  and  ex- 
ercised in  all  the  details  of  the  most  minute  and  most  difficult  move- 
ments of  the  hand.  When  the  nervous  strain  on  the  children  be- 
comes evident,  the  exercise  may  be  transformed  into  one  of  larger 
movements,  not  only  of  the  hand  and  arms,  but  of  totality,  which 
require  scarcely  any  attention,  and  occupy  without  tension  or 
fatigue.  It  is  said  of  billiard-players  and  of  fencers  that  they  must 
use  the  cue  and  the  foil  every  day;  likewise  these  children  under 
training  ought  to  have  their  hands  daily  exercised  ;  and,  as  in  some 
schools,  every  exercise  begins  and  ends  with  prayers,  I  would  suggest 
as  frequent  hand  exercises,  in  which  the  powers  of  perception,  voli- 
tion, and  execution  would  be  drilled  to  their  utmost  rapidity  and 
precision.  But  if  the  teacher  command  these  exercises  without  in- 
spiration, as  if  flowing  from  him  by  routine,  they  would  in  the 
same  ratio  be  routine-work  for  the  pupils,  melting  their  higher  facul- 
ties into  a  deliquescent  automatism. 

A  good  teacher  of  idiots  comprehends  this  and  acts  accord- 
ingly. "I  have  neglected  the  Personal  Imitation  of  the  hand, 
for  a  lime,"  writes  to  me  Miss  Mead,  "and  my  pupil  shows  it.  I 
find  that  it  is  of  infinite  value  to  him,  and  will  neglect  something  else 
sooner  than  this." 

My  previous  illustrations  were  from  public  institutions ;  the  last 
will  be  from  this  perspicuous  private  teacher.  Her  pupil  is  a  boy 
of  seven  years,  healthy,  swarthy,  and  unclean,  not  unpleasant,  but 
unmanageable ;  who  speaks,  but  unconsciously,  and  repeats  instead 
of  answering  questions.  His  case  is  one  of  sensorial  idiocy,  with 
frequent  cerebral  congestions  manifested  by  sudden  redness  of  the 
ears,  and  unmistakable  insanoid  propensities :  such  as  that  of  cause- 
lessly striking  his  brother  and  directly  kissing  him  with  a  sincere 
affection.  (See  La  Main  E/lcha/lte  of  Gerard  de  Nerval,  a 
pathetic  monograph  of  the  same  irresistible  automatism  of  the  hand, 
though  from  different  origin). 

The  hand  of  B is  small  and  melting,   as  it  were,  under  the 

gentlest  pressure.  Nails,  short  and  brittle ;  fingers  unfinished;  com- 
plete flaccidness  of  the  muscles,  each  swollen  at  the  terminal  end 
like  burnt  alum,  their  articulations  as  if  formed  by  simple  apposition ; 
no  power,  no  skill  in  that  hand,  used  only  to  eat  coarsely,  to  beat 
and  be  bitten,  and  be  shaken  in  frequent  fits  of  excitement.  The 
exercises  instituted  to  train  that  hand  aimed  at  efficient  muscular 
contraction  and  articular  compression,  at  awakening  the  sensibility 
ot  the  nerve  termini  urging  on  the  movements  of  totality  and  of  lo- 
cality ;  at  making  all  these  functions  of  the  hand-powers  at  first  obey 
at  command,  or  follow  imitation  (without  command),  and  gradually 
act  from  necessity,  desire,  pleasure,  and,  finally,  from  habit. 


106   

These  hand-exercises  (more  than  forty),  give,  as  a  whole,  occa- 
sion for  the  following  remarks  :  They  were  grouped  by  similars  and 
contrasts ;  sometimes  their  analogies  were  sought,  at  other  times 
avoided;  similarly,  contrasts  were  shunned  or  courted  in  order  to 
force  the  comprehension  and  the  execution  of  analogies.  Similarly 
in  exercises  of  strength  and  of  dexterity,  following  each  other ;  that  of 
strength  first,  if  it  only  stimulated  to  activity ;  second,  if  it  could 
exhaust  the  activity  by  its  intensity  or  duration,  in  which  case  the 
hand  would  subsequently  be  found  unfit  for  a  work  of  precision.  Also 
with  exercises  alternately  made  light  and  heavy,  or  with  wooden  and 
iron  dumb-bells,  it  is  not  well  to  exhaust  the  strength  at  first  with  the 
heavy  ones,  and  to  demand  afterward  precision  of  movements  and 
of  poses  with  the  light  ones.  Likewise  with  the  contrasts  to  be 
established  between  the  tactile  and  contractile  exercises  of  the  hand, 
in  which  a  physiological  alternation,  precedence,and  proportion  was 
at  times  favorable,  the  reverse  injurious. 

After  8  months  of  close  conformity  to  these  rules  the  teacher  of 

B has  succeeded  in   making  his  hand  more  firm  and  useful. 

This  fated  hand  has  lost  the  greatest  and  worst  part  of  its  automa- 
tism, striking  and  jerking  rarely  now.  B partly  dressing  him- 
self, lacing  and  buttoning  imperfectly  and  slowly,  brushing  his  own 
clothing,  maneuvering  his  tricycle,  building  in  bricks  q^  brick-shaped 
blocks,  tracing  straight  and  curved  lines  almost  correct,  and  nicely 
generated  from  each  other  b^  successive  imitation,  to  form  figures  on 
the  blackboard, — uses  the  scissor  less  skillfully  than  the  chalk  but  can 
not  yet  handle  a  knite,  has  developed  the  sense  of  touch,  better  than 
that  of  sight.  Otherwise  this  severe  training  of  the  hand  has  favor- 
ably reacted  on  the  other  functions  and  greatly  improved  his  morals, 
too.  And  now  the  next  progress  of  his  hand  is  retarded  by  the  un- 
fixedness  of  his  sight ;  the  training  of  his  eye  will  come  uppermost 
in  the  series  of  functions  whichhave  to  be  created  as  far  as  their 
steadiness,  voluntariness  and  usefulness  are  concerned.  In  its  turn 
the  next  progress  of  vision  will  react  on  that  of  the  hand,  which  will 
not  be  neglected  in  the  mean  while. 

This  leads  to  the  most  general  remark,  that  the  best  lessons  are 
not  always  given  directly.  As  the  necessity  of  using  the  hand  has 
indirectly  forced  the  eye  to  look,  so  the  exercises  of  training  the 
eye  will  necessitate  and  improve  certain  operations  of  the  other  senses, 
and  particularly  of  touch.  This  law  of  reflex  action  of  one  function 
on  another  obtains  almost  in  every  department  of  education, 
but  in  none  more,  than  by  the  entraimment  of  pleasure  in 
various  forms,  instituted  to  promote  activity  and  even  spontane- 
ity, in  sluggish  and  passive  natures.  This  advantage,  having  been 
early  appreciated,  was  made  one  ot  the  levers  of  tlie  training.  Let 
us  see  how  it  touched  and  awakened  the  man  in  the  idiot.  But 
pleasure  being  protean,some  of  its  forms  touched  him  more  than  others. 


In  the  lowest  of  these  inferior  beings,  I  have  always  found 
traces  of  a  propensity  whose  satisfaction,  or  even  approach  to  satis- 
faction, gives  pleasure.  One  must  look  early  for  that  door  ajar,  or 
crevice,  in  an  existence  immured  on  all  other  sides.  Thus  it  is  not 
infrequent  to  use  a  peculiar  taste,  even  a  vicious  one  (like  those 
developed  in  Malacia),  as  a  bait,  directly  to  develop  a  better  taste  or 
apjjetence,  or  indirectly  to  induce  operations  of  another  order. 

In  a  different  direction,  one  of  the  irresistible  automatisms  of 
the  hand,  instead  of  being  opposed  to  a  long  while,  even  forever  in 
vain,  is  taken  hold  of  and  directed  toward  a  useful  occupation,  a 
mode  of  training  more  or  less  germane  or  correlated   to   the  said 

automatism.     The  education  of   B furnished  a  line  specimen 

of  this  kind  of  entra'memetit  from,  and  by  an  automatism  which 
caused  him  great  pleasure  and  verged  on  vice  in  its  crude  state. 
He  was  very  fond  of  caressing  things  or  persons  with  a  feathery 
touch  as  described  in  the  XXIX.  obs.  of  Idiocy,  page  376,  (from 
which  B. . . .  differs  in  all  other  respects).  This  propensity  was  made 
the  starting  point  of  a  series  of  tactile  drills  in  which  his  touch  was 
exercised  to  become  an  intellectual  fact  in  reference  to  the  form  of 
objects  hidden  from  sight  and  perceived  by  the  hand  only,  and  to 
the  material  of  other  objects  whose  feel  was  the  only  means  of 
identification  and  recognition.  To  carry  on  this  latter  plan.  Miss 
M put  in  a  covered  basket  several  objects  of  contrasting  form  rel- 
ative to  the  typical  forms  as  far  as  B ... .  knew  them  at  different  times. 
Oftener  the  objects  would  be  chosen  for  their  difference  of  tissue, 
as  velvet,  flannel,  muslin,  gauze,  kid,  &c. ;  others  for  their  difference 
of  surface  only,  as  polished  marble,  stone,  iron,  glass,  &c.  Did  this 
derivation,  will  it  be  said,  cause  the  eradication  of  the  bad  habit  ? 
Not  completely.  The  same  propensity  exists  yet,  but  is  mainly 
occupied  searching  contacts  more  intellectual,  often  useful,  at  any 
rate  made  use  of  in  the  teaching  to  increase  his  knowledge  of  things 

mainly  felt. — It  was  rather  early  in  his  training  that  B. had  given 

unmistakable  signs  of  a  natural  appetence  for  flowers,  and  in  the 
flowers  for  their  fragrance.  We  began  to  use  it  as  a  fulcrom  before 
he  could  walk  in  the  street  undirected.  At  the  florist,  they  would 
buy  the  flowers  tliat  appealed  the  most  to  his  sensorium,  oftener 
by  the  smell  than  by  the  color,  and  he  would  carry  it  by  an  effort  of 
his  incapable  hand  and  of  his  feeble  will,  sustained  by  the  desire  of 
enjoying  it  at  home.  There  he  would  go  of  himself,  take  a  sniff  at 
it ;  then,  asked,  tell  its  name,  the  name  of  the  one  he  brought  yes- 
terday, rechning  near  by  half-faded,  and  of  the  previous  ones 
already  planted  in  the  flowery  garden  of  his  reminiscence.  So 
pleasure  is,  when  possible,  made  the  direct  incentive  to  improvement. 
But  sometimes  it  is  not  possible,  that  is,  some  parts  of  the  training 
present  no  pleasurable  aspect,  and  it  becomes  our  duty  to   invent 

(11) 


108 

some  accessory  desire  for  them.  At  other  times,  the  child  himself 
suggests  the  derivative,  as  B did  to  me  not  long  ago.  His  reluc- 
tance to  exercise  with  the  balancier  was  not  yet  overcome,  when  he 
came  at  it,  one  day,  fresh  from  a  story  told  him  of  a  pigeon,  and, 
while  throwing  the  balancier^  he  asked  me  more  about  it.  I  com- 
plied, sending  and  receiving  the  heavy  apparatus  all  the  while. 
This  pleased  him,  and  seemed  to  increase  his  activity.  The  next 
day  he  asked  again  about  the  pigeon,  more  came,  and  now  it  is  his 
pleasure  to  bring  me  the  balancier  in  order  to  end  his  day's  work  by 
this  once  dreaded  exercise  and  more  about  that  dear  pigeon.  How 
absurd,  but  how  human!  Suscitate  desires,  you  create  actions. 
However,  great  tact  is  required  to  select,  to  eliminate  as  well,  the 
derivatives  to  ennui,  fatigue,  inattention,  &c.  I  let  myself  be  guided 
by  this  rule:  When  a  pleasurable  derivative  is  needed  to  give  more 
continuity  to  exercises  of  activity,  offer  it  during  these  exercises  in 
the  rhythmic  forms ;  the  human  voice  being  the  best,  and  reasoning 
the  worse.  But  where  mental  or  sensorial  attention  is  demanded, 
let  us  trust  silence,  isolation,  moderation  of  light,  unity  of  sensation 
and  of  milieu,  distinctness  of  articulation  concordant  to  precision  of 
language,  and  a  persistence  timely  alternated  with  desirable  and  de- 
sired encouragements. 

But,  above  all,  do  not  bore  these  children  to  make  them 
savants.  Torment  them  not  with  books,  Avhose  best  could  not  pre- 
vent them  from  remaining — like  ourselves— more  remarkable  for 
what  they  will  continue  to  ignore  than  for  what  they  will  have 
learned.  Teach  them  mainly  by,  with,  and  for  what  can  make 
them  happy. 

a)  Entrainement  by  Flay-things. — The  school  of  Colum- 
bus has  set  the  example — and -others  have  followed  it,  that  of  South- 
Boston  for  instance — of  putting  a  play-thing  on  the  desk  of  each 
pupil,  in  order  to  give  him  a  chance  to  play  when  his  attention  is 
not  called  otherwise.  This  toy,  changed  every  session,  may  be  dis- 
regarded for  a  time,  perhaps  for  a  long  time ;  but  once  looked  at, 
it  will  soon  be  looked  for,  handled,  made  to  act  the  part  imagina- 
tion assigns  to  it ;  and  she  is  not  a  teacher,  who  cannot  start  from 
thence  to  establish  the  true  relations  of  the  child  with  his  play-thing ; 
which  is  for  him — after  his  mother's  breast — the  commencement  of 
the  world. 

b)  Entratnement  by  Music. — Few  idiots  are  more  than  pas- 
sively sensitive  to  music,  though  exceptionally  it  may  be  calming  or 
exciting,  and  in  rarer  cases  has  awakened  melodious  affinities,  even 
in  children  deprived  of  the  faculty  of  speech,  (see  the  monograph 
XLHI  in  "  Idiocy  and  its  Treatment  by  E.  Seguin,"  P.  404).  As 
for  the  general  impression  made  by  school-music  on  these  children,  it 


109   

depends  upon  the  melody  more  than  .on  the  composition.  Some 
tunes  for  us  very  fine,  make  no  impression  on  the  children ;  and 
others,  flat  for  us,  elate  them.  But  why  should  they  not  have  a 
different  sensorium  of  harmony  than  we?  Each  race  has;  nay, 
every  class  m  a  community.  The  other  doubt  refers  to  the  instru- 
ment selected.  The  piano  may  not  correspond  to  the  want  of  such 
institutions,  except  to  make  the  time  in  marching,  &c. ;  but  any 
cheap  metronome  would  answer  that  purpose.  However,  taking  a 
utilitarian  view  of  music  as  it  is,  the  piano  does  good  service  in  the 
classes  of  instruction  in  voice  and  speech,  in  the  gymnasium,  in  the 
imitation  rooms,  and  in  the  next  exercise,  as  a  motor. 

By  a  sort  of  contradiction  not  unfrequently  met  with  in  more 
complete  organizations,  the  idiot,  ordinarily  prone  to  immobility,  is 
delighted  at  the  sight  of  other  people's  movement,  and  is  often  him- 
self carried  into  this  movement.  This  is  noticeable  where  dancing 
is  made  an  habitual  feature  of  the  evening,  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
Ohio  State  Asylum  of  Columbus,  where  the  groups  are  formed  so 
as  to  bring  the  excited  with  the  timid,  the  active  with  the  indolent, 
in  order  to  make  them  move  harmoniously  and  contentedly :  so  that 
even  the  cripples  express  their  participation  in  the  movement  by  the 
agitation  of  their  limbs  and  the  broadness  of  their  smile. 

c)  Entrainement  by  Sight. — This  last  observation  prepares 
for  the  following  one  that :  idiots  are,  if  possible,  more  fond  of  the 
pleasures  of  sight  than  of  those  of  hearing.  I  have  never  seen  an 
idiot  that  was  not  benefited  by  sights,  even  by  those  which  he  could 
not  "comprehend"  as  we  comprehend  them.  His  pleasure  in  an 
art  gallery  is  not  our  pleasure,  but  is  his;  and  a  sufficient  one  to  in- 
terest him  to  think,  to  desire,  and  to  act.  Give  idiots  plenty  of  en- 
gravings and  paintings. 

Bright  colors  and  well-chosen  contrasts  affect  them  quickly  and 
rationally  too,  and  often  cause  an  intelligent  happiness  to  come  to 
the  surface  of  their  indifference.  This  action  on  the  mind  through 
the  retina  is  most  apparent  around  the  Christmas-tree,  a  touching 
custom  originated  for  them  in  the  asylum  of  Syracuse.  It  is,  of  course, 
an  elaborate  affair.  Parents  send  boxes  full  of  presents,  not  only  to 
their  children,  but  to  the  children  who  have  no  parents.  For  a 
week  teachers  and  lady  friends  give  their  spare  hours  to  the  secret 
adornment  of  the  tree,  which  covers  and  fills  the  upper  part  of  an 
immense  room  with  hundreds  of  playthings,  and  several  thousand 
pictures,  candies,  glass  balls,  mirrors,  and  innumerable  little  colored 
wax  candles.  When  the  branches  are  so  loaded  that  they  would 
break,  if  not  of  living  pine,  an  afternoon  is  employed  to  set  it 
ablaze,  and  the  children,  issuing  from  a  comparatively  dark  room, 
are  suddenly  exposed  to  the  glare  and  temptation  of  this  fruition 
of  brightness.  At  this  sight,  hardly  one  face  out  of  fifty  looks  idiotic 
during  the  process  ot  distributing  so  many  treasures — for  each  child 


—    110   — - 

receives  several.  What  a  lesson  for  the  eye  and  for  the  heart !  On 
the  spot,  Sarah  Gray,  a  hydrocephal,  who  for  years  could  sit  but  not 
stand,  and  afterward  could  stand  but  could  not  walk,  now  glides  si- 
lendy  along,  erect,  and  looking  as  if  burdened  with  her  large  ivory 
forehead,  approaches  a  younger  and  weaker  child,  kisses  her,  and 
gives  her  her  own  present.  Who  will  say  that  the  noble  women  who 
spend  their  life  in  instructing  and  mothering  idiots,  Mesdames  Ni- 
coUe  of  Paris,  Young,  Cook,  Wood  of  Syracuse,  Macdonald  of  South 
Boston,  Knight  of  Lakeville,  Blake  of  Frankfort,  Ky.,  Charles  Wil- 
bur of  Lincoln,  111.,  Doren  of  Columbus,  O.,  have  lost  these  last 
twenty  and  thirty  years,  and  many  younger  persons  their  freshest 
ones  at  the  task  of  making  idiots  more  intelligent  and  happy  ? 

d)  Yet  that  occupation  of  instructing  idiots  by  makmg  them  happy 
has  sometimes  been  condemned  as  in  bad  taste. — In  the  experimen- 
tal school  of  Germantown,  Pa.,  a  child  about  twelve  years  old  would 
in  the  evening  stand  on  a  table  surrounded  by  a  family  of  idiots, 
and,  dressed  for  the  occasion,  would  represent,  with  comical  voice 
and  gestures,  some  fable  or  story  m  which  children  and  beasts  would 
play  the  most  absurd  parts.  It  was  delightful  and  instructive  to  see 
idiots  accept  the  impossibilities  of  the  situations,  and,  through  the 
conventionalities  of  a  juvenile  and  colored  language,  pic^:  up  and 
enjoy  the  zest  and  spirit  of  the  scenes.  But  these  were  considered 
scenes  of  confusion  :  and  so  they  were,  as  far  as  the  pupils  became 
clamorous  for  joy,  and  would  rise  from  their  seats  to  applaud  the  ac- 
tor; the  suppression  of  this  innocent  recreation  restored  the  school 
to  order,  and  the  scholars,  lively  for  once,  tC)  the  dullness  of  idiocy. 

This  Puritanism  is  gradually  subsiding,  however ;  pleasure  be- 
gins to  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  stimuli  of  activity  and  morality. 
In  consequence,  each  institution  has  its  innocent  games,  and  little 
theatricals  or  shows,  in  whit:h  pupils  and  teachers  meet  on  terms  of 
encouraging  equality.  Pleasure  acting  here,  as  in  the  kindergarten, 
like  a  ferment  of  activity.  For  the  healthiest  development  is  not  leav- 
ened by  and  under  human  or  supernatural  pressure,  but  by  expand- 
ing sympathy.  We  found  the  same  agent,  sympathy,  to  be  the  physi- 
ological corner-stone  of  morality ;  and  the  education  of  idiots  found- 
ed upon  it  to  give  its  best  results  where  the  children  are  m.ost  loved. 

On  another  hand,  idiots  must  not  be  brought  up  in  the  belief 
that  all  that  is  done  for  them  is  their  due,  —  without  due  return  from 
them ;  an  unequitable  plan,  which  would  foster  an  infatuation  odious 
in  an  intelligent  child,  repulsive  in  an  idiot, 

In  accordance  with  these  views,  the  agitation  for  the  improve- 
ment of  idiots  must  not  cease  till  we  have  provided  for  all  of  them. 
Under  the  inspiration  of  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan,  England  has  declared 
them  the  wards  of  the  empire ;  that  is  grand.  In  this  free  and  young 
country,  we  may  not  be  able  to  do  so  much  ;  though  we  may  event- 
ually do  better,  by  harboring  their  infirmities  and  training   their   in- 


—  Ill  — 

capacites  with  more  varied  resources.  But  whatever  plan  is  adopted 
for  their  relief  and  improvement,  their  great  number  must  not  be 
made  an  argument  m  favor  of  an  unlimited  increase  of  communistic 
institutions.  The  family  is  the  best  commune.  Therefore  I  unhesi- 
tatingly say  :  It  is  desirable  that  the  idiots  whose  parents  have  small 
means  or  none  with  no  time  or  room  to  spare  for  their  education,  be 
sent  to  the  institutions  erected  and  endowed  for  them  by   the   State. 

It  is  equally  desirable  that  the  idiots  whose  parents  have  some 
means,  but  no  room  or  time  to  spare  for  their  training,  be  entrusted 
to  familial  institutions  where  they  would  receive  more  individual  care, 
and  feel  more  at  home. 

It  is  also  desirable  that  families  in  good  circumstances  be  offered 
the  means  of  keeping  and  educating  their  idiotic  child  among  their 
intelligent  children,  to  that  effect  the  idiot  must  have  the  benefit  of  a 
special  day-training-school,  or  of  an  experienced  teacher.  Provided 
for  otherwise,  that  is  communistically,  the  idiot  looses  more  in 
sympathy  than  he  can  gain  in  instruction.  On  another  hand,  the 
brothers  and  sisters — who  have  no  opportunity  to  love  him,  but  hear 
of  him  as  of  a  blot  on  the  family  name,  and  a  mortgage  on  the 
family  estates — soon  agree  to  keep  him  away,  and  trust  him  to  the 
lowest  bidder — a  policy  by  which  they  lose  more  than  the  idiot  him- 
self; because  the  sense  of  equity  once  lost  in  relation  to  the  defence- 
less and  harmless,  is  lost  also  for  their  internal  relations ;  the  estrange- 
ment of  the  idiot  is  the  wedge  of  family  cheats  and  feuds. 

Having  seen  in  a  long  practice  the  difference  between  idiots  so 
estranged  from  home  and  those  surrounded  by  natural  affections  (I 
have  now  in  view  a  dear  hydrocephal  of  65 ;  head  28  inches  of 
circumference,  as  happy  as  could  be ;  wise  and  even  keen  in  her 
ways,  and  whose  moral  sense  is  perfect  becauce  it  was  never  hurt) ; 
I  can  not  hesitate  to  advocate  for  such  cases  a  home  education  and 
an  individual  training,  whose  object  is  not  only  to  improve  them  as 
far  as  a  deficient  nature  permits,  but  to  make  them,  as  far  as  possi- 
ble, good  and  happy. 

My  experience  in  educating  such  pupils  warrants  me  to  say 
that  this  country  has,  more  than  any  other,  competent  female 
teachers  who  could  and  will  do  this  work  (at  too  low  a  rate  of  com- 
pensation) under  the  direction  of  a  competent  physician. 

51.  Conclusions. — Practically  the  amount  of  good  done  to 
idiot  sfrom  1838  to  I878  is  incalculable;  but  the  sum  of  good  done 
to  Society  by  awakening  the  consciousness  of  Her  duties  toward 
these  children  is  greater  yet.  Scientifically  idiocy  is  better  under- 
stood, and  its  treatment  has  furnished  results  already  transfered, 
others  transferable  to  the  training  of  ordinary  children.  But  anthro- 
pology expects  yet — mainly  by  its  own  fault — the  results  of  the 
rapprochement  (juxtaposition)  of  the  anatomo-histologic  elements 
of  idiocy  and  of  the  psycho-physiological  evidences  furnished  by  pa- 


112   

tient  monographs.  Therein  lies  the  treasure  idiocy  keeps  in  reserve 
— for  the  true  student ;  the  relation  of  its  anomalous  organs  to  its 
anomalous  functions.  In  a  word,  what  the  teacher  of  idiots  has 
already  taught  to  ordinary  children,  is  only  the  beginning  of  what 
idiocy  must  reveal  to  anthropology  about  man-culture. 


113 


POPULAR  EDUCATION  AS  IT  IS,  AND  AS  IT  SHOULD  BE. 


CHAPTER  I. 
The  Common  School  as  I  have  found  it. 

52.  Succeeding  the  Catholic  school,  accessory  to  the  Church, 
— or  the  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic,  adjunct  to  the  Presbytery, — the 
common  school  is  of  recent  culture,  on  shifting  and  ill-defined 
grounds,  and  of  slow  growth,  owing  to  the  immaturity  of  its  plans 
and  to  the  activity  of  its  enemies.  However,  its  beginning  are  glori- 
ous ;  it  has  already  its  heroes  and  martyrs  ;  and  it  is  already  re- 
garded as  the  lever  that  is  to  raise  civilized  nations  to  a  higher 
civilization,  and  to  extricate  barbarous  nations  from  barbarism.  In 
this  respect,  the  common  school  is  certainly  a  better  instrument  of 
true  social  power  than  the  university,  since  it  does  not  deter  the 
young,  durii\g  many  years,  from  useful  occupations  and  family  in- 
fluence; does  not  encourage  thinking  m  vacuo;  nor  varnish  the 
incapable  with  a  nugatory  erudition,  thereby  creating  classes  diffi- 
cult to  please  and  expensive  to  feed. 

On  the  contrary,  the  common  school  touches  (ought  to  touch) 
all  the  chords  of  the  nervous  powers  to  harmoniously  develop  the 
functions  into  capacities ;  yet  leaving  room  for  one  of  them  to  rise 
eventually  to  a  higher  level  as  a  token  of  future  individuality.  It  is 
asserted  that  soldiers  are  made  for  the  army.  Were  we  to  say  that 
the  child  is  made  for  the  school,  the  proposition  would  seem 
monstrous ;  for  it  is  admitted  on  all  hands,  that  the  school  ought 
to  be  made  for  the  child,  the  curriculum  fitted  to  his  powers. 
Such  will  be  the  criterion  of  our  judgment  of  the  schools  to 
be  presently  reviewed,  and  of  the  school-improvements,  whose  con- 
sideration will  occupy  the  closing  pages. 

53.  English  popular  Education  was  represented  only  by  the 
appliances,  books,  hymns,  and  other  music  of  Sunday-schools  and 
Bible-classes.  Why  ?  Mr.  Gladstone  has  answered  that  question  at 
Hawarden  in  an  address  on  mental  culture  :  "  In  Germany,  France, 
and  in  many  parts  of  Italy,  there  is  a  much  greater  disposition 
among  the  people  of  the  country  to  avail  themselves  of  opportuni- 
ties of  knowledge  and  mental  culture  than  in  England.  The  mass 
of  the  English  people  is  only  just  coming  into  possession  of  the 
blessing  of  a  popular  system  of  education,"  &lc. 


114 

Mr.  Gladstone  does  not  say  that  it  was  he  who  had  fought 
with  success  in  England,  and  with  indifferent  results  in  Ireland,  the 
battle  of  a  "  national  system  of  education  "  against  sectarian  niflu- 
ences.  Since  1873,  primary  and  common  schools  have  been  estab- 
lished all  over  the  country ;  like  ours  in  the  size  of  their  buildings,  but 
unlike  ours  in  the  beauty  of  the  surrounding  grounds,  even  in  large 
cities.  The  same  impulse  extended  its  influence  over  the  British 
Colonies.  Australia  showed  in  the  exhibition  of  Paris,  and  the 
Province  of  Toronto  in  Philadelphia,  that  the  popular  system  of 
education,  far  from  having  exhausted  its  resources,  is  just  beginning 
to  unfold  them.     It  counts  now  (1879)  four  millions  of  pupils. 

54.  The  Swedish  School,  in  which  attendance  is  compulsory 
for  all  children  from  seven  to  fourteen  years,  was  represented  by  a 
model  house  or  room  capable  of  accomodating  twenty  girls  and  as 
many  boys.  A  gymnasium  is  attached  to  it.  It  is  less  crowded 
with  seats  and  desks  than  the  American  model,  and  infinitely  less 
than  the  French  class-rooms.  There  is  a  supply  of  fresh  water  for 
the  pupils  in  the  entrance-hall,  and  another  on  the  desk  of  the  teacher. 
This  desk  stands  higher  than  those  of  the  children.  At  its  right  is 
a  piano  or  organ,  at  the  left  a  table  for  experimental  demonstrations 
in  physics,  &c.,  the  three  pieces  being  of  plain  white  wood  of  a 
simple  and  strong  pattern.  The  forty  desks  and  seats  are  worth 
noting.  By  ingenious  and  strong  mechanisms,  the  former,  slightly 
concave  in  front,  slides  nearer  the  pupil  when  he  wants  to  write,  and 
the  latter  can  be  raised  or  lowered  to  suit  the  size  of  the  pupil,  but 
it  does  not  afford  any  support  to  his  back;  a  great  defect.  The 
walls  are  not  allowed  to  remain  unutilized.  The  one  back  of  the 
teacher  (facing  the  scholars)  is  covered  with  a  blackboard  headed 
by  model  letters,  of  which  the  counterparts  may  be  found  printed 
on  cards  contained  in  boxes  below.  The  upper  part  of  the  wall  is 
occupied  by  changeable  tableaux  of  music,  arithmetic,  geometry, 
and  writing-models.  The  wall  in  which  are  three  large  windows  is 
thickly  trophied  with  rifles,  trumpets,  drums,  and  the  more  pacific 
instruments  of  music,  and  surmounted  by  large  geographical  charts. 
On  the  opposite  side  are  tastefully  grouped  spades,  rakes,  and  other 
implements  of  labor  used  by  the  pupils  ;  near  by,  in  glass  cabinets, 
are  specimens  of  corn,  wheat,  barley,  flour,  of  plants,  barks,  &c., 
and  in  the  next  case  are  specimens  of  mineralogy  and  imitations 
of  the  principal  forms  of  crystallization.  The  fourth  side-wall  sup- 
ports one  case  containing  specimens  of  animals,  birds,  insects,  and 
reptiles,  and  another  of  objects  and  of  physical  apparatus.  The 
lower  parts  contain  small  and  large  drawers,  in  which  lie  series  of 
astronomic  and  geological  charts.  One  of  these  series  is  painted  in 
black,  and  the  children  put  in  the  right  places  little  cubes  on  which 
the  names  of  these  places  are  printed ;  there  were  also  stored  near 
by  geometrical  drawings,  an  immense  variety  of  handwork  made  by 


115    

girls  and  boys  and-^particularly  worthy  of  praise — pictures  of  fishes 
which  could  be  equaled  only  in  the  schools  of  Norway  and  Finland. 
*'Ces  peuples  sen  Is  comprennent  le  poisson'\  In  other  words, 
to  comprehend  the  nature  of  the  fish,  it  seems  necessary  to  live  al- 
most exclusively  with  it,  like  it,  upon  it !  The  Norwegian  and  Fin- 
nish schools  do  not  difter  much  from  the  Swedish.  One  thmg  is 
surprising,  however,  in  the  Finnish  :  it  is  the  presence  of  two  ar- 
rangements invented  in  1843  at  Bicetre  to  fix  the  eye  of  idiots;  but 
ideas  percolate  more  subtly  than  quicksilver. 

55.  The  Swiss  schools  resemble  the  Swedish  in  their  closely 
practical  aim.  They  may  teach  music  more  thouroughly,  and  phy- 
sical exercise  less  by  plain  work  and  more  by  collective  gymnastics, 
like  the  Germans ;  but  they  intermingle  both  in  a  kind  of  general 
training  which  was  planned  in  18 10,  and  has  since  played  an  im- 
portant part  in  the  unification  of  national  characters  and  national 
movements.  The  influence  of  this  part  of  education  must  be  studied 
by  all  thoughtful  persons  and  adapted  to  their  system  of  training 
the  youth,  with  the  modifications  demanded  by  national  idiosyn- 
crasies. In  the  Swiss  school,  singing  presents  itself  in  three 
phases:  the  infantile,  which  begins  almost  with  the  teaching 
of  speech  in  child-like  rhythms  and  choruses;  the  gymnastic 
songs,  aiding  the  development  of  the  chest  as  well  as  the  force 
and  precision  of  general  evolutions,  (of  the  latter  there  are  exhibited 
several  manuscript  and  printed  volumes ;  the  third  phase  of  music 
is  to  teach  to  large  groups  those  popular  songs  found,  not  only  in 
print,  but  in  the  throat  and  ear  of  everybody,  and  running — warm- 
ing the  common  feelings — through  the  social  body,  as  the  blood 
runs  and  distributes  a  normal  temperature  throughout  the  body 
of  the  individual. 

Where  Agassiz,  Lyell,  de  Beaumont,  Larive,  (of  Geneva.)  He- 
bert,  (of  the  Paris  normal  school,)  de  Candolle  have  studied  or 
taught,  and  where  the  Alps  rise  like  an  unavoidable  text-book,  it  was 
to  be  expected  that  geology  would  occupy  its  natural  place  in  the 
school.  Accordingly,  besides  excellent  elementary  treatises,  they 
have  geological  sections,  represented  in  colored  glass  by  Professor 
Mulberg  of  Arau,  (capital  of  Argovia.)  There  were  seen  also  large 
collections  of  botany,  of  mineralogy,  and  illustrated  scientific  public- 
ations adapted  to  school  use.  History  is  represented  in  vast  col- 
lections of  picture  books ;  and  the  national  chronicles  are  besides 
briefly  told  in  cantonal  and  federal  statistics.  I  have  said  elsewhere 
how  the  infant-schools  have  been  improved  in  Geneva  and  other 
places  by  the  introduction  in  them  of  some  of  the  kindergarten  oc- 
cupations. 

A  local  feature  of  the  schools  scattered  in  the  Swiss  valleys,  is 
the  ground  attached  to    the  school,   where  the  teacher  initiates  his 

(12) 


116  

pupils  m  the  crafts  of  sowing,  planting,  grafting,  protecting  vegeta- 
tion from  frost  or  heat,  &c.  So  the  village  or  country  schools,  with- 
out the  high-toned  pretentions  of  "Agricultural  Colleges",  teach  the 
children  to  cultivate  their  birth  place,  and  to  love  it  through  the 
natural  sympathy  of  man  with  what  his  work  embellishes.  This  cul- 
tivation of  home  aftections  is  the  more  necessary,  since  Switzerland 
is,  like  Italy,  Auvergne,  and  Massachusetts,  bled  of  her  best  blood 
by  emigration. 

56.  In  Italy,  where  the  clergy  had  the  entire  management 
of  education,  seventy-six  analphabetics  were  found  to  twenty-four 
who  could  read ;  they  had  been  taught  the  rosary  instead  of  the 
alphabet.  Yet,  at  the  first  awakening  of  the  Italians  as  a  nation, 
their  natural  propensities  showed  themselves  by  leading  the  van 
of  education  toward  the  achievements  of  their  forefathers :  glass- 
ceramic  in  Venice,  mosaic  in  Rome,  statuary  in  Florence,  paint- 
ing everywhere ;  even  the  great  art  of  Vesalius  and  Morgani  seemed 
to  be  resuscitated  in  the  admirable  preparations  of  zootomy  by  Sag- 
gio  and  others.  The  schools  best  represented  in  the  Welt-Ausstel- 
lung  were  those  of  Pistoia,  for  elementary  drawing;  of  Perugia,  for 
painting  on  vases ;  of  Cagliari,  for  ornaments  in  black  and  white ; 
of  Udine,  for  camaieu  or  grisaille ;  of  Ravenna,  for  oil-painting ; 
of  Asti,  for  topographic  charts.  The  most  showy  result  of  this  new 
departure — besides  the  immovable  mosaics  left  at  home —  is  a  people 
of  statues,  in  which  no  other  nation  excels  the  Italians  in  natural- 
ness. This  is  because,  besides  possessing  their  elegance  and  true 
force  ot  movement,  they  are  sincere — that  is,  their  figures  do  what 
they  pretend  to  do  without  seeming  to  mind  what  the  spectators 
think  of  them;  the  lack  of  this  characteristic  is  a  most  ordinary  and 
insufferable  defect  in  statues  and  in  actors.  Many  French  and  Bel- 
gian artists  possess  it  to  a  painful  degree.  It  is  true  Carpo  could  make 
the  stone  laugh  and  the  marble  cry,  as  none  of  these  Italians  can  ; 
but  there  was  only  one  Carpo,  as  there  was  but  one  Coustou ;  a 
marvellous  representer  of  imperial  immorality,  as  great  a  historian 
on  marble   as  Balzac  and  Dickens  are  in  romance. 

Having  visited  Florence  in  1877,  I  saw  side  by  side,  the  old 
masters  in  their  famed  gallery  and  the  exhibition  of  the  works 
of  living  artists ;  the  latter  showing  a  freedom  from  the  former  which 
augurs  well  for  the  young  school. 

More  striking  yet,  the  teaching  of  drawing  in  popular  schools 
has  prepared  youth  for  duty  in  industrial  and  decorative  arts ;  and 
children  are  seen  everywhere  trying  their  hands  at  works  of  taste. 
The  Carrara  marble  and  alabaster  are  tastefully  chiseled  for  rich  and 
poor;  and  the  needle  fixes  on  tapestry,  velvet,  satin,  or  coarse  canvas 
associations  of  colors,  blended  only  where  the  oriental  rays  begin  to 
be  tinged  at  dusk  with  the  penumbras  ot  the  Occident. 

Naples  has  her  children — painters    of  the   Vesuvius,  precursors 


117   

of  the  chromo-lithographs ;  whilst  in  Venice  a  few  old  forgotten 
masters  of  glass-coloring  and  enamel  have  l)een  encouraged  to  gather 
apprentices,  and  teach  them  the  all  but  lost  art  of  fingering  under 
the  blow-pipe  the  fluid  glass  in  a  thousand  forms  and  colors  equally 
fascinating  to  the  American  girl  and  to  the  bayadere.  I  could  not 
leave  the  few  Italian  schools  I  visited  without  wishing  they  would 
teach  more  vocal  music  to  a  peoi)le  whose  atavism  is  nowhere  more 
evident  than  in  the  ([ualities  of  its  vocal  cords. 

57.  The  Portuguese  schools  have  exliibited  comprehensive 
historic  tableaux,  somewhat  in  the  manner  of  the  synchronic 
tableaux  of  Michelet.  Spain  sent  little  of  interest  besides  her  livijig 
specmien  illustrative  oi'  the  educaiion  of  the  deaf-mute  and  the  blind 
— Martni  y  Ruiz — and  elegant  writings  from  the  school  for  the  blind. 
Let  us,  however,  note  the  school-models  of  anatomy  of  Fernando 
Velasco,  particularly  a  vertical  section  of  a  head  in  stearine. 
The  decorative  pottery,  the  nickled  armors  and  clocks,  th?  delicacy 
and  originality  of  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  gold  and  silver  works, 
— products  of  tradition  it  may  be,  but  which  could  not  have  been 
transmitted  without  a  kind  of  education,  creative  of  a  national  taste. 

58.  Austria  has,  besides  the  kindergartens  and  her  school- 
gardens  a  vast  system  of  popular  institutions  of  learning, 
at  the  head  of  which  is  that  of  the  Leopoldstadt.  In  the  high- 
er and  professional  grades,  technological  institutes,  and  academies 
of  fine  arts, —  that  of  Prague  sent  unsurpassed  cartoons  of  flowers  in 
water-color.  Hungary  contributed  large  collections  of  photographs 
of  plants  valuable  in  the  teaching  of  natural  history.  Bavaria,  with 
less  abundant  materials  shows  the  same  art  direction  in  the  education 
of  youth.  Wuerttemberg  excels  in  the  popular  art  of  carving  wood, 
of  which  the  school  is  traditionally  in  the  Hartz  Mountains,  and 
of  which  the  products,  pleasing  by  their  clumsiness  {/laivct' )  find 
buyers  all  over  the  w(jrld.  The  nearer  we  come  to  the  Rhine,  the 
more  FlXilcliH  the  forms  of  education,  and  its  products.  Our 
limited  space  forbids  extending  these  remarks,  which  will  be  con- 
cluded in  the  next  paragraph. 

59.  We  will  call  the  next  group  German,  an  expression  as 
vague  as  the  unsetded  limits  of  the  empire.  It  contains,  if  not 
the  largest  collection  of  objects  of  education,  what  is  better  for  our 
purpose  and  the  more  characteristic,  the  discipline.  The  Prussian 
school  is  classical  and  military,  being  organized  to  train  scholars  and 
fighting-men.  But  it  is  easy  to  discern — beyond  the  present  status 
of  these  phases  of  training — in  the  French  of  Montaigne, /z//;  •////•£;-  ■ 
a  new  aspiration  toward  supremacy  in  industry,  taste,  and  art  in  its 
various  forms.  To  attain  this  supremacy,  the  German  schools  are 
constantly  enlarging  their  curriculum,  under  the  leadership  of  philoso- 
phical and  far-seeing  teachers,  \\ho,  after  all,  are  the  true  Kaisers 
of   Germany.      She    has  urmies   of    children     painting,    drawing, 


118  -^ 

chiseling,  calculating ;  other  armies  of  adolescents  producing  at 
the  lowest  rates,  objects  of  taste,  fancy,  or  fashion,  and  trying  to 
be  artistic.  Will  this  last  word  provoke  a  protest  from  those  who, 
in  1870,  have  seen  New  York  girls  weep  because  war  forced  on 
theii"  shoulders  the  fashions  of  Berlin  instead  of  those  of  besieged 
Paris  ?  But  French  arts  and  fashions  were  not  received  any  better 
in  Europe,  even  at  Gaillon  in  the  time  of  Primaticcio  and  of  Fran- 
cis the  First ;  yet  not  long  after,  the  Italian  artisans,  being  persecuted 
by  the  nobility,  were  welcomed  by  Henry  the  Fourth,  and  soon 
France  ruled  m  the  arts. 

At  Lyons,  at  the  Gobelins,  at  Sevres,  St.  Gobens  etc.,  she  be- 
came the  center  of  artistic  industry  and  the  arbiter  of  taste.  But 
now  the  artisans — whose  type  is  the  Lyonnais,  over- worked  and  de- 
formed by  the  hardships  of  industry — now  that  the  French  bourgeois 
declare  that  they  have  not  killed  enough  of  them,-  ('\yoilS  n! en 
avons  pas  assez  tue,"  said,  in  1873  the  young  red-headed  Buloz  to 
the  writer  of  this  paper),  now  the  artisans,  distrustful  and  disheart- 
ened, do  not  learn  drawing  nor  practice  their  trade  with  zeal,  and 
they  have  already  lost  some  of  their  skill  with  the  departure  of  the 
feeling  of  security ;  and  they  emigrate  when  they  can,  to  escape  the 
plots  in  which  their  oppressors  try  to  involve  them.  Such  are 
the  signs  of  the  passage  of  the  crown  of  art  from  one  country  to 
another.     (This  pressure  culminated  and  broke  in  May  1877.) 

Forty  years  ago  Victor  Cousin,  in  a  report  on  public  instruction, 
made  a  similar  prophecy.  He  declared  to  tlie  King  and  to  the 
Nation  that  Prussia  was  already  ahead  of  France  in  matters  of  edu- 
cation, and  if  France  did  not  make  a  suppreme  effort  to  raise  the 
standard  of  general  education,  her  decline  was  at  hand,  and  Prussia 
would  soon  be  the  rude  leader  of  Europe.  Those  who  laughed  at 
this  prediction  in  1840,  tore  their  hair  in  despair  in  1870. 

And  yet  this  warning  of  Cousin  was  not  the  first  France  had  re- 
ceived. In  181 1,  Cuvier  had  recommended  to  the  French  Emperor  the 
adoption  of  the  plan  of  "the  Dutch  Primary  schools  which  he 
could  not  see  without  emotion  and  study  without  admiration."  Let 
us  therefore  open  for  these  schools  a  parenthesis,  instead  of  a  chapter 
which  they  deserve. 

60.  Dutch  and  Belgian  Schools. — The  Dutch  Primary 
schools  so  highly  estimated,  and  set  up  as  models  for  the  French  by 
the  great  naturalist,  were  the  realization  of  the  plans  of  popular 
education  promulgated  in  1792 — 1794  by  the  French  Republic. 
The  French  had  to  leave  Holland,  but  Holland  kept  the  French 
primary  school,  so  well  adapted  to  her  former  mode  of  self-govern- 
ment and  actual  habits  of  simple  equality. 

Belgium  being  in  the  meanwhile  (18 14)  annexed  to  Holland 
ought  to  have  been  benefited  as  well :  but  becoming  independ- 
ent later  (1830),  after  a  futile  effort  at   assimilation,   and  since  labor- 


119   

ing  under  the  disadvantage  of  being  possessed  and  ruled  by  mitered 
Roman  legates,  she  has  remained  behmd  in  popular  education. 
Wherever  her  schools  can  be  seen,  as  in  Brussels  or  Antwerp,  there 
are  a  few  as  good  as  in  Holland,  only  more  showy ;  but  in  remote 
parts,  one  half  the  people  are  not  taught  to  read — or  rather,  are 
taught  to  not  read,  but  to  believe  in  miracles  and  to  obey  the  clergy. 
Thus  it  happens  that  Belgium  now  has  50  per  cent  more  analpha- 
betics  than  Holland.  But  it  must  not  be  omitted  that  this  lowering 
process  finds  opposition  ni  lay-schools  of  great  perfection.  It  is  in 
one  of  these  latter,  conducted  by  Prof  Gallet  in  Brussels,  that  I  have 
seen  the  first  French  niHre  and  its  fractions  broadly  painted  from 
floor  to  ceiling  in  the  school-room,  thus  unavoidable  to  the  sight, 
therefore  to  the  mind. 

Impatient  of  the  yoke,  yet  incapable  of  throwing  it  away,  the 
Belgian  Chambers  have,  by  a  recent  law,  provided  that  religious  in- 
struction shall  be  imparted  in  a  room  set  apart  for  it  in  each  school ; 
and  that  the  priests  will  no  longer  be  suffered  to  interfere  with  the 
lay-teachers'  work,  nor  to  act  as  school  inspectors,  in  which  capacity 
they  keep  the  teachers  in  their  dependence. 

61. — The  French  Popular  School  is  the  first  effort  at  reorgani- 
zation of  the  French  Republic  of  1789.  They  had  no  time,  in  the 
storm,  to  establish  it,  but  did  better,  injenunciating  its  principle  and 
in  outlining^its  course. 

a)  The  Principle.  ;,The  lastj^word  and  testament  of  the 
XVIII  to  the  XIX  century  was:  "//  sevci  etddU  (tans  chagiie 
Canton  de  la  R'^jjubtigue  une  on  plusieurs  e coles  prlniaireSy 
&cy  The  course:  By  the  social  contract,  or  constitution,  the 
republic  promised  to  all  the  children,  in  consideration  of  their  loyalty, 
a  moral  education,  mainly  taught  by  the  example  of  good  men ;  in- 
struction in  the  duties  of  citizenship  ;  to  speak,  to  read,  and  to  write ; 
some  geography,  notions  of  natural  and  familiar  objects,  the  use  of 
the  compass,  level,  lever,  pulley,  numbers,  time,  measures  and 
weights  (metric).  The  pupils  were  to  be  taken  into  the  fields  and 
workshops  to  see  the  work  done  and  to  take  in  it  such  a  part  as 
their  strength  and  intelligence  would  permit.  The  children  would 
be  encouraged  to  cultivate  miniature  gardens  of  their  own  at  home 
or  around  the  school ;  and  the  normal  schools  have  grounds  attach- 
ed, where  the  pupil-teachers  might  learn  enough  of  horticulture  to 
serve  them  in  their  future  country  homes,  and  to  impart  the  same 
knowledge  and  taste  to  the  village-children.  For  the  children  of  the 
cities,  the  public  gardens,  collections  of  natural  or  scientific  objects, 
and  the  art-museums  were  declared  free  means  of  education,  access- 
ory in  their  use  to  the  school  proper,  by  the  far-seeing  minds  of 
Laplace,  Monge,  Foucroy,  Daunou. 

But  no  sooner  (1795)  had  their  idea  appeared,  when  it  was  seized 
as  Laocoon  and  his  children  by  the  hydra.     The  four  generations  of 


120   

teachers  who  tried  to  realize  the  idea  of  educating  the  people  for  the 
duties  of  life,  have  lived  and  sufifered  untold  miseries  during  the  ebb  and 
flow  of  the  late  social  actions  and  reactions.  What  I  have  seen  and 
what  I  have  to  say  from  1873  to  1877  belongs  to  the  reaction;  I 
hope  the  last  year  has  opened  a  better  era. 

b)  School  Material.  The  French  schools  exhibited  at  Vi- 
enna quite  extensively,  but  not  equally.  The  first  object  attracting 
attention  was  the  vast  model  of  the  manufactory  of  school-appara- 
tus for  Paris,  which  turns  out  everything  made  of  "  wood^  iron,  or 
plaster  for  schools.  It  is  useless  to  enumerate  them;  and,  besides 
all  was  not  shown  at  Vienna  ;  tliere  were  missing  things  which  could 
be  seen  only  at  the  establishment  in  the  He,  LoiiDier,  where  there 
were  piles  of  Chrisls,  angels,  virgins,  cherubs  with  swords,  flambeaux 
&c.  One  must  see  these  casts,  ignomininously  piled  in  the  expec- 
tation of  becoming  sacred,  and  of  being  worshiped  in  their  turn,  m 
order  to  comprehend  the  depth  and  distance  at  which  the  children 
of  France  are  kept  from  the  true  God  ;  and  conversely,  why  men 
profess  atheism  rather  than  to  acknowledge  such  deities.  From  the 
manufacture  of  this  Olympus,  whose  gods  recall  the  expression  of  the 
ferocious  art  of  Zurbaran  without  his  genius,  let  us  come  down  to 
that  of  the  desks  and  benches. 

They  are  made  of  the  most  durable  material  (oak),  and  of  a 
form  to  accomodate  the  greatest  number  of  pupils :  straight,  long 
benches  without  back-supports,  equally  long  desks  without  subdivi- 
sions. Yet  these  popular  arrangements  are  generally  superior  to  those 
of  some  first-class  colleges,  Henry  the  Fourth's  for  instance.  Besides, 
most  of  the  class-rooms  are  so  badly  ventilated,  that,  when  the  door 
has  been  shut  for  half  an  hour,  the  closeness  of  the  atmosphere  repels 
the  visitor.  No  place  for  standing  or  for  movement.  In  this  closely 
packed  and  confined  atmosphere,  no  wonder  that  the  children  be- 
come restless ;  and  when  the  signal  (5f  recess  is  given,  they  leave 
with  a  rush  which  has  more  the  character  of  necessity  than  of  the 
impetuosity  of  youth.  They  do  not  go  out,  they  run  away.  As  a 
compensation,  the  schools  generally  possess  a  well  drained  play- 
ground for  summer,  and  a  covered  one  for  wdnter.  Even  Paris  is 
superior  in  this  respect  to  New  York. 

c)  The  Methods  of  teaching  are  similar  to  ours ;  the  favorite 
ones  being  those  by  which  the  greatest  number  of  pupils  can  be 
taught,  by  which  the  greatest  quantity  of  information  can  be  impar- 
ted with  the  least  amount  of  work  from  the  master.  Biit  the  cur- 
riculum differs  in  giving  less  time,  or  no  time  to  algebra  and  geome- 
try. Practically  the  French  pupil  is  quicker  in  arithmetic,  probably- 
because  he  operates  only  in  decimals.  Geography  is  very  eiemen 
tary,  indeed  deficient,  is  turned  into  a  nj^ichine  to  influence  for  or 
against  a  party ;  modern  history  is  not  taught,  nor  the  current  events 


121   

i)rought  to  notice  ;     of  their  civic    status  rights  and  obligations,  the 
children  do  not  hear  a  word. 

d)  Another  great  defect  of  the  Popular  School  (and  of  the 
University  of  France,  too)  is  the  form  of  stimulation,  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  pupils  :  —  not  to  do  good,  but  to  rise  above  their  fel- 
lows. Be  the  token  a  crown  or  cross,  or  some  other  symbol  of  pub- 
lic notoriety,  this  constant  incentive  towards  supremacy  demoralizes 
the  few  who  can  pretend  to  it,  and  dejects  or  abjects  the  larger  num- 
ber who  feel  doomed  to  inferiority. 

e)  Outside  of  the  oficial  schools,  the  "Unions  Scolaires"  have 
replaced  these  insignia,  which  breed  pride,  jealousy,  humiliation,  and 
are  precursors  of  inequalities  among  equals — ^by  the  gift  to  the  meri- 
torious of  the  portraits  and  biographies  of  good  men,  read  in  the 
evening  circle  of  the  farmer  or  artisan,  and  tlien  hung  in  modest 
frames,  frequent  objects  of  the  aspirations  of  the  family  for  the  fu- 
ture of  their  children.  I  am  quite  proud  to  have  brought  over 
some  of  these  biographies,  given  me  in  one  of  these  schools,  when 
they  were  persecuted  by  the  ignoble  prefect  of  Lyons  in   1873. 

f)  In  conformity  with  the  Decrees  of  the  Convention,  the  stu- 
dents of  the  Normal  Schools  have  to  learn  the  elements  of  agricul- 
ture and  receive  practical  instruction  in  horticulture  upon  grounds 
located  conveniently  for  that  purpose.  There  are  more  than  a 
hundred  such  schools,  one  third  "only  for  women.  There,  they  re- 
receive  their  "professional  education"  on  the  written  pledge  to  teach 
so  many  years ;  and  they  receive  their  "practical  training"  in  the 
common  schools,  where  they  are  detailed,  either  for  a  time  as  as- 
sistants, to  maintain  order  and  learn  the  traditional  forms ;  or  on  an 
emergency,  to  take  the  place  of  absent  teachers. 

g)  The  salaries  of  the  primary  teachers  are  small  indeed ;  and 
I  have  seen  one,  in  Montmartre,  who  acknowledged  to  me  that,  for 
years,  he  could  hardly  come  to  the  breakfast  table,  for  fear  of  seeing 
that  there  would  not  be  enough  put  on  it  by  his  devoted  wife — cook 
— nurse — washwoman — tailoress,  &c.,  altogether — ,  to  satisfy  the 
hunger  of  their  young  family,  yet  there  is  small  compensation  for 
this  stress ;  they  have  a  house  and  garden  in  the  country  or  an 
equivalent  in  money  in  town ;  and  a  pension  of  retreat  after  33 
years  of  service.  But  what  is  without  a  possible  compensation  is  the 
pressure  exercised  upon  them  since  1848  by  M.  De  Falloux  and  his 
accomplices.  The  teacher  above  refered  to,  now  director  of  his 
school,  showed  me  the  man  charged  to  report  on  him.  That  is  an 
EX-BROTHER  divested  for  some  misdeed  of  his  robe  and  name  but 
good  enough  for  the  work  of  delation. 

h)  The  French  delegates  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition  of  Phila- 
delphia made  an  able  report  on  primary  education  and  did  full 
justice  to  the  American  public  school  system.  The  same  favorable 
appreciation  met  the  exhibits  of  our  schools  in  Paris  in  1878, 


1^2  

62.  The  American  Popular  education  is  justly  admired  for 
its  rapid  adaptation  to  the  wants  of  information  of  a  whole  people; 
for  the  unparallelled  generosity  of  the  states  towards  its  object ;  for 
the  zeal  and  capacity  of  its  one-hundred-thousand  teachers ;  and 
for  the  organizing  powers  of  its  managers,  who.  are,  without  meta- 
phor the  generals  of  the  workmg  armies  of  the  future. 

But  the  problem  of  directing  six  millions  of  children  toward 
their  better  destiny  by  giving  them  the  means  of  information,  dis- 
crimination, and  social  volition  has  been  fairly  tested,  and  we  have 
come  to  the  confines  of  the  possible  with  the  theory  and  resources 
at  command ;  viz :  a  vast  system  of  popular  education  founded  on 
the  exercise  of  the  brain,  a  more  than  royal  endowment  intelligently 
and  economically  spent  in  grandiose  buildings ;  and  yet  the  Ameri- 
can public  school  manifests  signs  of  that  vacillating  immobility  which 
precedes  either  a  retrogression  or  a  great  stride.  This  fasti gium  did 
not  escape  the  sagacity  of  the  leading  teachers.  In  their  anxiety 
they,  at  first,  added  year  after  year,  new  matters  to  those  which  al- 
ready overtaxed  the  average   brains. 

Now,  the  most  thoughtful  of  then,  think  of  cutting  oft  the  ex- 
crescences which,  called  b)  antiphrase  accomplishments,  deter  the 
pupils  from  the  acquisition  and  ready  use  of  their  mother-tongue. 
But  none  of  these  experienced  teachers  seem  to  have  a  clear  idea 
of  our  popular  school,  which  is — neither  to  extend  nor  to  shorten 
their  curriculum,  but  to  displace  it,  by  giving  it  a  less  psychological, 
and  a  more  physiological  foundation. 

It  is  with  that  view  in  our  mind  that  we  will  review  —  not  any 
longer  the  national  schools,  but  —  the  principal  factors  of  a  com- 
mon school  education,  in  the  hope  of  finding  in  them  a 

62,.   Criterium. 

In  looking  for  it  we  will  meet  with  a  difficulty  already  indicated, 
the  scarcity  of  the  specimens  sent  to  the  Exhibition,  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  re-establishing  between  them  the  missing  links.  But  experi- 
ence has  furnished  me  with  other  reasons  for  not  trusting  without 
personal  observation  the  models  which  vie  with  each  other  in  compe- 
titive exhibitions. 

a)  The  school  houses  und  school  rooms  I  saw  in  Vienna  and 
Philadelphia,  for  instance,  might  have  been,  in  reality  either  small 
or  large,  at  a  southern  or  northern  exposure,  isolated,  in  a  row 
of  cottages,  immersed  in  mud,  overtopped  by  factories,  &c.,  or  some 
of  their  radical  defects  may  have  been  suppressed,  even  replaced,  on 
paper,  by  some  desirable  innovations,  &c.  As  for  the  buildings, 
some  are  magnificent,  others  declare  the  penury  of  the  population, — 
almost  all,  vast  as  they  may  be,  have  become  too  small  for  the  mul- 
titudes to  be  accommodated.  Few  have  more  than  a  strip  of  yard, 
none  a  play-ground  open  in  summer,  covered    in  winter.     Inside  its 


123   

partitions,  all  the  teaching  is  done,  as  in  a  kettle  heated  alternately 
by  steam  or  the  ferment  of  contagia. 

b)  These  remarks  apply  with  greater  force  to  the  school- 
furniture  and  material  of  instruction  ;  which  we  see  bran-new  in 
specimens,  and  found  in  reality  almost  everywhere  wormy,  shaky, 
and  unpleasant  to  come  in  contact  with.  The  reverse  may  be  true 
in  some  cases,  but  not  in  many.  Finer  than  the  models  are  the 
furniture  I  have  seen  in  Boston^  and  the  teaching  appliances  in 
Albany. 

c)  But  the  weight  of  this  argument  bears  upon  the  work  of  the 
pupils  themselves,  which  forming  a  maze  of  selected  copy-books, 
charts,  drawings,  &e.,  represents  the  products  of  the  teaching  at  a 
great  distance  up  from  its  average  :  whereas  the  main  object  of  the 
common  school  system  is  the  production  in,  and  by  the  masses,  of  a 
fair  and  abundant  average  of  everythmg  needed ;  just  as  its  policy  is 
to  raise  all  youth  to  a  fair  average  of  goodness  and  co-ordinate  utility. 

Viewing  the  subject  in  this  light,  one  can  easily  conceive  how 
important  is  the  part  of  the  critic  in  relation  to  these  exhibitions. 
He  must  not  only  store  what  he  sees,  but  control  it  by  a  diligent  search 
for  the  counter-parts  or  proofs  of  it,  and  he  must  link  these  discon- 
nected, often  contradictory  evidences,  in  order  to  trace  their  ten- 
dency toward  a  future,  approvable  or  reprehensible.  Moreover,  if 
the  exhibited  types  are  not  completed  or  corrected  by  a  severe  and 
just  criticism,  they  will  be  accepted  as  ideals  for  the  next  period, 
during  which  they  will  preside  to  the  realization  of  incalculable  mis- 
chief, as  has  been  the  case,  for  instance,  with  the  places  erected  for 
—  I  mean  against  the  insane,  upon  mad  or  wicked  ideals.  On  the 
contrary,  when  the  new  types  seen  in  general  exhibitions  are  pre- 
sented with  their  legitimate  corrections  and  warnings,  their  immedi- 
ate realisation  at  once  ascends  the  higher  degree  of  perfection  which 
could  otherwise  be  attained  only  through  the  experience  of  a  seiies 
of  blunders.  In  a  word,  it  is  not  so  much  the  standard  of  the  last 
exhibition  which  determines  the  progress  of  the  next,  as  the  thor- 
oughness and  forwardness  of  its  criticism,  which,  digested  by  the 
people's  mind,  forms  the  staple  of  the  future  taste  and  public  opinion. 
It  is  by  looking  thus  alternately  backward  and  forward,  after 
having  compared  the  models  of  the  Welt-Ausstellung,  the  Puebla 
Street  Asylum,  the  Pape-Carpentier  and  Lemonnier  schools  and 
Unions  SCOlaires  of  Paris,  the  schools  of  Havre,  Bruges,  Brus- 
sels, Haarlem,  Geneva,  Lancaster,  (England,)  where  young  opera- 
tives come  from  the  neighboring  manufactories  to  learn  and  rest ; 
the  Gheels'  school  raised,  rather  dug  in  the  mud,  under  the  patron- 
age of  Ste.  Dympna,  the  Lyons  Unions,  suppressed  by  order  of 
Notre  Dame  dc  Fourviere,  the  New  York  primary  and  grammar 
schools,  and  the  cross-road   log-houses,   from  which  quietly  issue  at 

(13) 


124 

recess  the  well  tempered  —  because  not  repressed — young  fanners, 
who  perch  on  the  next  fence  like  birds,  talk  of  far-away  lands  and 
waters  like  poets,  and  of  the  future  like  men ;  it  is  after  seeing  these, 
and  many  of  the  intermediate  or  out-of-the-way  delineations  of 
what  pass  muster  for  schools,  that  we  hazard  a  few  suggestions  in 
regard  to  what  we  consider  their  next  desirable  improvements. 


325 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Common  School  as  it  should  be. 

64.  Specifications  :  (a)  The  school  must  be  built  on  the  high- 
est ground  of  the  district,  separated  on  all  sides  from  other  buildings, 
isolated  from  the  water-closets,  with  pure  water  in  each  room.  All 
the  openings  must  be  large  and  directed  toward  the  sun,  the  air  renew- 
ed (mechanically  if  need  be)  between  the  sessions  and  all  night.  When 
"a  smell"  is  detected  in  a  school  or  part  of  it,  tanks  improvised  with 
rolls  of  sheet  lead  are  spread  on  the  floor,  common  salt,  peroxide 
of  manganese  and  water  are  thrown  in  and  stirred,  and  sulphuric 
acid  being  added,  the  air  excluded,  pounds  of  chlorine  are  evolved 
from  the  dark  mass,  which  decompose  in  a  few  hours  the  deadly  gas 
or  germs  denounced  by  "the  smell." 

Against  two  other  mortal  enemies, — the  children  must  not  remain 
too  closely  nor  too  long  shut  up  together,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
action  of  typhus,  scarlatina  and  other  contagia  ;  and  if  the  region  is 
infested  with  malaria  the  scliool  must  be  surrounded  with  febrifuge 
trees,  the  eucalyptus,  arbor  vitae  cedar,  poplar,  &c.,  thickened  in  sum- 
mer by  rows  of  orchidees,  sun-flowers,  &c.  Without  excepting  the 
best  localities,  the  school- ground  should  be  well  drained  and  sunned, 
graded  and  finally  graveled  for  exercises  and  sports.  An  open, 
though  covered  ground,  must  be  managed  for  the  prosecution  of 
some  parts  of  the  active  training  when  the  weather  is  inclement. 

(b)  The  school  furnitures  must  be  pleasant  to  the  sight  and 
comfortable  to  the  body.  Excellent  seats,  exactly  fitting  the  size 
and  shape  of  the  children  ;  the  old  word  form  (if  it  corresponded 
to  its  etymology)  would  better  express  our  idea,  since  not  only  all 
the  children  must  have  good  seats,  but  those,  mainly  girls,  who  have 
a  weak  spine  when  growing,  ought  to  have  seats,  exactly  fitting  and 
individually  supporting  each  of  the  spinal  processes,  and  others  must 
be  allowed  to  rest  their  back  horizontally  as  often  as  the  physiological 
censor  of  the  school  would  prescribe. 


196   

The  ordinary  seats  are  made  to  fit  the  difterent  sizes  of  chil- 
dren, also  adapted  to  the  elevation  of  the  desks  which  vary  as  the 
children  read,  write  or  draw.  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Massachu- 
seats,  have  good  seats,  and  London  better  ones,  since  she  has  adopt- 
ed the  school  furniture  of  Dr.  Liebreich. 

But  this  question  has  other  aspects :  Must  the  seats,  with  or 
without  desks  attached,  be  continuous,  or  connected,  four,  three  or 
two  together,  or  single  ?  We  have  seen  that  the  continuity  of  rows 
of  seats  or  benches  agrees  with  the  natural  demand  of  infants  for 
support  right  and  left  or  front  and  back  in  the  salU  d'asylc-  In 
higher  grades  this  close  contact  gives  occasion  —  as  shown  in  the 
primary  class-rooms  —  for  enroachments  of  one  pupil  on  another, 
and  the  exercise  of  petty  napoleonism.  Isolated  seats  are  the  natur- 
al demand  of  the  thoughtful  adolescent,  in  the  drawing  and  mathe- 
matical rooms,  and  are  preferable  to  punishment  by  the  isolation  of 
the  troublesome.  In  the  similar  view,  triple  seats  may  be  used  to 
keep  a  restless  child  bound  by  the  example  and  position  between 
two  studious  ones.  The  twin  desks  may  serve  the  purpose  of  re- 
warding pupils  by  seating  friends  together,  or  by  pairing  one 
who  needs  help  in  his  studies  with  another  capable  of  being  his 
helper. 

(c)  The  habit  of  fiUing  up  the  class-room  with  furniture,  and 
of  filling  up  the  interstices  with  compressed  children,  has  been 
modified,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  salle  d'asyU,  and  must  disap- 
appear  from  the  schools  and  colleges.  Except  in  a  formal  amphi- 
theatre, where  students  repiain  passively  listening  only  a  short  time, 
the  school-room  must  offer  space  enough  for  the  living  to  move  in. 
To  that  effect,  let  the  seats  and  desks  recede  toward  (not  against) 
the  walls  and  leave  the  center  free,  as  an  invitation  to  the  children 
to  come  out,  when  specimens  are  exhibited  to  the  class,  or  for  the 
exercise  of  their  spontaneous  faculties.  Let  them  be  arranged  m  a 
somewhat  circular  order  which,  without  being  formal,  would  make 
the  teacher  and  pupils  to  face  each  other  more  intellectually  than 
do  long  rows  of  straight  lines ;  and — most  important — would  cause 
the  light  to  fall  at  proper  angles,  and  with  due  attractiveness  on  the 
objects  of  study ;  thus  supporting  the  attention  of  the  mind  by  the 
comfort  of  the  eye. 

(d)  The  relations  of  size,  horizontality,  and  distance  of  the 
teacher's  desk  and  platform  to  the  size  of  the  auditorium,  or  class 
proper,  demand  consideration,  because  they  carry  with  them  econ- 
omy or  waste  of  the  voice,  gesture,  and  general  means  of  command 
over  the  children  Those  means  of  influence  of  the  teacher  have  to 
be  husbanded  with  great  economy,  otherwise  exhausting  her  ner- 
vous power  exhausts  their  effectiveness.  The  Swedish  platform 
seems   the  best  arranged  for  this  saving ;   that  of  New  York   is   to 


127  

bulky,  separates  the  children  too  miicli  from  the  teachers,  who,  being 
generally  small  intelligent  women,  have  to  spend  more  energy  than 
they  can  spare  in  filling  with  their  voice  and  gesture  the  gap  which 
separates  them  from  their  pupils  ;  and  the  latter,  perceiving  this  in- 
congruity of  proportion,  are  less  attentive,  and  more  difficult  to  con- 
trol with  continuity. 

(e)  Other  teaching  appliances.  —  In  the  impossibility  of 
naming  them  all,  I  would  say  that,  besides  being  solid  in  substance 
and  make,  and  as  pleasing  in  form  and  color  as  possible,  they 
most  excel  in  the  qualities  which  make  them  useful ;  be  they  com- 
passes, glasses,  the  metre  and  litre  with  heir  fractions,  the  ther- 
mometer, hygrometer,  pendulum,  globes  and  spheres,  which  serve  to 
illustrate  natural  laws. 

There  must  be  blackboards,  not  only  behind  the  teacher,  but  in 
every  available  place  at  the  proper  height  on  the  walls  ;  and  when 
you  have  so  many,  and  use  them  all,  as  in  the  high  school  of  Albany 
N.  Y.,  it  seems  as  if  you  had  not  yet  enough.  This  assertion  is 
drawn  from  me  by  the  recollection  of  the  school  for  the  deaf-mutes 
of  Aix  la  Chapelle,  where,  besides  the  walls,  all  the  furniture  is  black 
and  constantly  used  for  blackboards ;  and  why  not  ?  Dr.  W.  Lin- 
nartz,  who  has  organized  this  method  of  teaching,  deserves  a  higher 
place   than   that    which  I  assigned  him  in  Part   II.  of  this  report ; 

but  who   can  tell  all  that   he  has  seen? This  wonderful  use  of 

every  available  piece  of  wood  in  the  school  for  writing,  drawing, 
calculating,  and  conveying  to,  or  receiving  information  from  his 
pupils  is  worth  transferring,  from  Dr.  Linnartz's,  to  the  ordinary 
schools. 

All  available  places  next  to,  and  above  the  formal  blackboards, 
are  naturally  enough  filled  by  charts,  illustrations,  specimens,  and 
instruments  of  demonstration,  which  must  vary  according  to  the 
grade  of  the  class,  and  the  requirements  of  the  population. 

(f)  Though  the  school-room,  when  so  full,  may  appear  in  danger 
of  being  encumbered — which  would  be  for  the  children  a  lesson  of 
disorder — there  is  really  little  danger  of  it,  since  the  center  of  the 
room  must  remain  always  free,  and  because  the  last  minutes  of  each 
session  must  be  given  to  the  restoration  of  everything  to  its  hook, 
drawer,  shelf,  or  closet  by  children  honored  with  this  trust ;  an 
honor  granted  them  as  much  as  possible  in  rotation,  So  much  for 
a  lesson  of  order  which  leaves  its  imprints  through  life. 

Otherwise,  and  in  the  most  general  terms,  everything  about  the 
children  must  be  simple,  concentric,  and  concordant.  All  the  lines 
should  be  converging  to  unity,  representative  of  their  destination  ; 
all  the  colors  harmonizing  in  one  tone,  as  in  a  Mozart  creation,  so 
that  the  mind  becomes  concentrated  by  the  centripetal  direction  of 
the  surroundings,  and  the  senses  pleased,  without  exitement,  by  the 
neutral  concert  of  the  accessories. 


128  

(g)  As  for  contrivances  of  order  and  police  regulations  in 
schools,  a  praiseworthy  example  of  one,  and  a  deprecatory  illustra- 
tion of  the  other,  as  I  saw  them,  will  suffice.  There  is  in  the  Lancas- 
ter public  school,  already  spoken  of,  a  contrivance  which  I  recom- 
mend where  room  is  scarce. 

Over  each  seat  hangs  a  cord  rolling  on  a  pulley  with  a  hook  to 
which  are  suspended  caps,  baskets,  &c.;  so  that  fifteen  hundred 
pupils  get  their  things  to  lunch  or  to  start  away  in  a  second,  with- 
out possibility  of  confusion  or  bickering.  We  approve  of  this  strict 
order  because  it  is  not  repressive ;  other  forms  are  more  objection- 
able than  accidental  disorder,  because  they  create  an  irresistible  ne- 
cessity for  reaction.  So  it  is  always  fair,  and  often  politic,  not  to 
represent  the  rules  to  children  by  stringent  material  barriers,  whose 
very  prominence  provokes  infraction ;  for  if  their  good  sense  tells 
them  to  obey,  the  rudeness,  and  often  the  multiplicity,  of  such  fenc- 
es and  defences  invite  them  to  break  through  the  whole  system  of 
restrictions.  As  an  example  in  point,  take  the  spirit  of  the  French 
colUgie7is  at  large,  and  look,  for  instance,  at  the  dormitories  of  the 
College  of  Henry  IV.  If  you  inquire  why  the  windows  are  barred 
more  strongly  than  in  an  insane  asylum,  and  little  less  than  in  a 
prison,  the  answer  is  that  the  pupils  would  go  through  them  to  do 
mischief  at  the  certain  peril  of  injury  or  death.  If  it  seem  strange 
that  there  is  only  one  Hght  for  two  rooms  and  more  than  a  hundred 
beds,  and  that  a  single  one  shining  dimly  in  an  inaccessible  niche 
at  the  top  of  the  door,  strongly  guarded  both  ways  by  iron  gratings, 
they  will  say  that  if  the  pupils  could  reach  that  light  they  would  ex- 
tinguish it,  and  commence  rioting  in  the  dark,  and  soon  the  place 
would  be  set  fire  to  &c.  ;  and  this  is  true  as  a  possibility,  for  through 
the  smallest  aperture  m  the  net-work  of  compression  off  rushes,  not 
the  boy,  or  lad,  but  a  very  monkey  itself,  as  created  by  the  impossi- 
bility of  showing  manly  qualities.  In  proof  of  this  assertion,  I  have 
seen,  during  vacation,  these  same  monkeys  exhibit  toward  their 
mothers,  sisters,  and  their  social  acquaintances  the  most  urbane 
quaHties.  Nevertheless,  outside  of  the  family  they  will  carry  into 
their  worldly  relations  this  negative  and  (to  some  extent)  anti-social 
spirit  of  resistance  inoculated  into  them  by  material  as  well  as  by 
moral  compression.  This  is  said  as  a  warning,  timely  for  our  own 
colleges,  premature  for  our  public  schools. 

65. — The  school-book.  Once  the  book  was  the  school,  and 
the  school  was  the  book.  Melanchton  and  Luther,  more  orthodox 
than  Leo  X.,  taught  the  book,  by  the  book,  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
book.  Erasmus  commenced  the  series  of  day-school-books,  which 
inherited  the  pretentions  to  infallibility  and  universality  of  their 
elder,  but  their  failures  are  many. 

(a)  Though  the  American  school-books  have  opened  a  new  era 
in  printing  for  children's  eyes,  and  France  and  Italy    have  improved 


120    

theirs  in  our  walk,  there  are  no  duplicates  ot  the  staple  school-books 
printed  in  the  several  types,  demanded  by  different  optic  conditions ; 
nor  are  there,  in  the  curriculum  any  provision.s  for  the  introduction 
of  eye  exercises  at  long  range  after  close  or  line  reading,  &c. 

(b)  Teachers  may  know  or  not,  that  the  eye  has  a  power  of 
accommodation  represented  by  a  center,  or  norm,  and  by  an  ex- 
tension which  permits  it  to  see,  at  almost  any  distance,  objects  of  al- 
most any  size ;  but  they  certainly  do  not  know  that  if  the  exercise 
of  this  faculty  is  commenced  too  young,  or  carried  too  far  away 
from  its  norm,  the  center  of  accommodation  is  displaced,  the  sight 
altered,  and  other  organic  defects  are  produced.  But  this  is  not  all. 
As  we  read  in  the  natural  history  of  the  fishes  of  the  Mammoth 
Cave  of  Kentucky,  that  the  eyes  would  submit  to  almost  any  con- 
ditions imposed  uqon  them,  even  to  disappearance  when  they  are 
not  called  for  by  the  presence  of  light ;  as  we  see  our  very  young 
children  poring  over  such  very  badly  printed  books ;  as  myopia 
is  so  fearfully  on  the  increase  that  the  young  need  spectacles 
nowadays ;  and  as  myopia  has  an  accumulative  power  by  heredity : — 
may  we  not  reach  a  point  when  the  children  of  our  fashionably  my- 
opic population  will  be  compelled,  like  the  Kentucky  fishes,  to  leave 
their  organs  of  vision  in  the  cave,  or  to  come  out  with  a  supple- 
mentary one,  somewhat  in  the  shape  of  a  binocle,  astride  the  nose? 
This  problem  can  only  be  solved  in  the  old-fashioned  way  of  mak- 
ing children  read  very  late,  in  large,  neat  print,  and  very  little,  from 
very  good  books,  for,  the  reasons  above  given,  to  which  may  be  add- 
ed the  other,  expressed  in  1754  by  John  Locke:  "Children"  (he 
says,  men)  "of  much  reading  are  greatly  learned  ;  but  may  be  little 
knowing." 

(c)  This  leads  to  the  question :  What  are  the  intellectual  quali- 
ties desirable  in  school-books  ?  Although  these  qualities  depend  on 
the  grade  of  the  school,  on  the  mental  conditions  of  the  child,  and 
on  the  point  in  the  curriculum  at  which  he  has  arrived,  we  can  ab- 
stractly define  as  a  good  book  for  education,  one  which  will  interest 
and  instruct,  set  the  mind  thinking,  and  which  does  not  cause  the 
sympathies  to  degenerate  by  the  fear  of  phantasms.  There  are  also 
books  which  have  not  our  approbation  because,  though  thorough, 
they  do  not  set  the  mind  a-thinking,  leave  nothing  for  the  teacher  to 
say,  nor  for  the  pupil  to  infer. 

(d)  Histories  are  often  of  this  class.  Is  it  not  painful  to  hear 
pupils  recite  about  the  worship  of  Isis,  without  as  much  as  a  hint  at 
the  influence  which  these  rites  had  on  the  mind  of  the  people,  and 
by  religious  selection,  upon  the  superior  breeding  of  the  ox,  to  which 
we  owe  the  flesh  that  supplies  the  strength  of  modern  societies.  Or 
to  see  Charlemagne  represented  with  a  sceptre  and  crown,  but  not 
in  the  act  of  ordering  what  plants  should  be  introduced  in  his  bota- 
ical  gardens,  and  studied  m  the  public  schools  which  he  opened 


130   

throughout  his  empire.  The  history  of  Alexander  is  told  to 
our  children  as  a  bloody  escapade.  Nothing  is  said  of  his  conquests 
in  natural  history  or  in  geography,  or  of  his  establishment  of  new  ar- 
teries of  commerce  and  civilization ;  nothing  of  the  scouts  sent  in 
every  direction  to  supply  Aristotle  and  his  disciples  with  rare  ani- 
mals, new  fruits,  and  plants.  In  these  expeditions  to  the  Indus  and 
Oxus,  branching  out  to  the  Indian  Ocean,  the  Red  Sea,  and  around 
the  Cape,  his  generals  became  infected  with  a  love  of  science.  Their 
greater  rivalry  after  his  death  was  not  on  the  battle-field,  but  in  Per- 
gamos  and  Alexandria^  where  Seleucus  and  Ptolemeus  emulated  each 
other  in  the  creation  of  zoological  and  botanical  gardens,  libraries, 
schools,  in  which  they  followed  the  courses  of  study  hke  common 
students,  and  with  them,  and  prosecuted  experiments  in  materia 
medica,  toxicology,  and  physiology  with  the  masters,  Herophilus, 
Erasistratus,  and  others. 

The  French  expedition  to  Egypt  is  told  in  the  same  vulgai 
spirit.  The  Dii^ectoire  had  sent  —  besides  an  ambitious  general  — 
a  scientific  commission  whose  labors,  commenced  in  the  folio  reports 
of  Denon  and  his  colleagues,  were  continued  by  the  opening  of  the 
Isthmus  of  Suez,  and  will  not  be  closed  till  the  civilizing  idea  of 
Alexander  shall  have  embraced  three  continents.  A  history  written 
on  such  a  basis  would  give  our  children  noble  stimuli,  or  intellectual 
ambition,  and  the  comprehension  of  future  events. 

(e)  But  be  the  book  as  good  as  possible,  it  seems  more  fitted  to 
the  mind  of  the  indolent  than  to  that  of  the  active  thinker.  The 
examples  abound  of  would-be  bad  boys  becoming  great  men ;  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy,  in  his  boyhood,  hated  books  and  manifested  a 
strong  liking  for  open-air  sports,  making  collections  of  natural-history 
specimens,  thus  acquiring  the  rudiments  of  a  positive  education  — 
acquaintance  with  nature's  ways. 

(f)  Moreover,  there  are  books  purposely  poisoned.  I  have  seen 
those  manufactured  in  Turin  with  the  help  of  the  idiot,  the  cretins, 
the  halt,and  paralytics,  in  order  to  pervert  their  simple-minded  kinsmen 
shut  up  in  the  gorges  of  the  Alps.  Worse  ones  containing — behind 
the  title  of  a  much  esteemed  volume  a  parody  of  it  and  calumnies  on 
its  author.  Or  not  so  coarse,  but  more  dangerous,  reproductions  of 
the  beautiful  classics  of  the  world,  Fenelon,  Pascal,  De  Foe,  Moliere, 
mangled  by  suppressions  and  sullied  by  interpolations.  It  is  but 
last  year  that  the  Mayor  of  Tours  refused  to  give  these  forgeries 
in  premium  to  the  city-pupils :  an  unprecedented  courage. 

Since  there  are  so  many  bad  books,  and  so  very  few  good  ones, 
would  It  not  be  better  to  reject  them  all  ?  No !  For  verbal  teaching 
can  and  does  go  the  wrong  way  a  good  deal  farther  than  the  book, 
and  without  control.  Therefore  let  us  keep  our  school-books  and 
steadily  improve  them,  as  they  form  by  their  bulk  of  acquired 
knowledge   a  barrier   against  national  backsliding,  even  outside  o 


181    

Sicily,  Spain,  and  South  America.  We  must  be  vigilant,  for  the  con- 
gregation of  the  Index  has  legates  or  proconsuls  among  us,  working 
stealthily  at  the  destruction  of  the  ideas  upon  which  our  liberties  are 
founded,  and  who  will  work  as  defiantly  as  they  do  m  Canada, 
circumstances   and  our  own  blindness  permitting. 

(g)  Then  what  is  to  be  done  ?  Do  what  you  please,  and  im- 
prove what  you  can  —  about  the  school  buildings,  apparatus,  dis- 
cipline, books,  &c.  ;  —  the  means  of  education  now  at  command, 
— once  sufficient  for  a  few  thousand  pupils,  and  for  the  social  de- 
mands of  the  past — are  inadequate  to  the  present  wants  of  150,000 
pupils  in  the  city  of  New  York,  1,500,000  in  in  the  State,  1,000,000 
in  the  state  of  Ohio,  14,000,000  in  this  Republic,  and  many  more 
hourly  born  with  the  right  of  being  educated  up  to  the  point  of  do- 
ing their  best  in  this  world  of  co-workers. 

(h)  Then  the  school  question  is  one  of  revolution  ? . . .  .Yes. 

First  from  the  classic  plan,  the  school  must  rise  to  the  physio- 
logical plan,  which  does  not  exclude  air,  light,  space,  movement. 
On  the  contrary,  if  these  elements  of  vitality  can  not  be  induced  to 
enter  the  'shut-up'  school,  let  the  school  meet  them  out-doors  .In  or- 
der to  locate  and  to  move  toward  higher  capacities  so  many  millions, 
let  the  school  be  enlarged  by  opening  to  it  the  pages  of  the  book  of 
nature  and  art,  whose  illustrations  can  be  conveniently  gathered  not 
far  from  the  old  school,  in  garden-schools. 


(14) 


IB2 


CHAPTER  III. 
Garden-Schools. 

"The  former  ideas  on  public  schools  are  exhausted  ; 
new  social  and  individual  wants  demand  new  solu- 
tions of  the  problem  of  educat  ion,  and  these  solu- 
tions rest  with  the  physician  and  physiologist."  E.  S. 

66.  —  Growth  of  this  idea,  (a)  The  former  ideas  on  public 
schools  are  exhausted. — I  affirm  it  with  these  proofs :  since  thirty 
years,  in  order  to  improve  these  schools,  they  have  been  loaded  with 
classical  matters  ;  and  in  latter  years  the  progress  consists  in  unloading 
them  of  that  surfeit....  Millions  of  children  can  not  be  prepared  to  work 
on  these  superfluities  which  are  like  feathers  to  the  cap,  or  the  four- 
centimeter  finger-nail  to  the  vowed  hand  of  the  idler. — New  social 
and  individual  wants  demand  new  solutions  of  the  problem  of  edu- 
cation, and  these  solutions  rest  with  the  physician  and  the  physiolo- 
gist. It  is  of  no  use  to  point  out  more  of  the  defects  of  the  old 
school  system,  let  us  substitute  for  criticism  an  idea  of  a  reconstruct- 
ive character. 

(b)  Of  this  character  is  the  idea  of  Garden-Schools,  that  is, 
in  its  generality,  of  making  the  schooling  of  the  masses  more  active 
and  practical  by  transfering  it  to  the  open  air,  whenever  it  is  possi- 
ble, in  obedience  to  these  axioms  of  Physiological  Education : 

1.  Do  not  teach  anything  in-doors,  which  can  be  learned  out-doors. 

2.  Teach  nothing  from  books  which  can  be  learned  from  nature. 

3.  Teach  nothing  from  dead  nature  which  can  be  observed  on  the  Uving. 

4.  Nature  is  to  be  the  school-room  and  the  school-book,    unless  insuper- 
able difficulties  prevent. 

Clear  as  these  principles  are  in  the  abstract,  their  application 
has  not  yet  assumed  definite  forms,  owing  to  the  newness  of  this  old 
idea,  for  most  of  the  modern  minds. — 

(c)  Ideas  live  and  die  like  men,  and  are  resuscitated,  too,  like 
him,  if  they  deserve  reviving ;  but,  be  it  in  their  initial  or  subsequent 
life,  they  must  be  born  in  many  minds  before  they  can  be  realized 
in  practice. 


183   

This  tardy  process  is  unavoidable.  Ideas,  like  seeds  will  grow 
slowly,  the  more  slowly  when  their  produce  will  last  longer  and  reach 
farther.  Let  us  say  more  ;  not  only  do  wholesome  ideas  not  attain 
at  once  their  full  expansion,  but  it  is  hardly  desirable  that  they  should. 

For  what  is  an  idea  which  comes  out  alone  in  the  world  ? an 

Utopia.  On  the  contrary,  an  idea  supported  by  the  surrounding 
minds  grows  steadily,  and  is  soon  a  good  fruit-bearer.  Of  this  latter 
kind  will  soon  be  the  idea  which  I  will  present  on  the  subject  of 
Garden-schools. 

To  say  this,  is  equivalent  to  the  confession  that  my  idea  is  not 
tnine^  but  is  gradually  born  from  the  fecundation  of  higher  minds. 

This  idea  has  traversed  ages  of  light  and  ages  of  darkness,  be- 
ing sometimes  quite  lost  sight  of;  therefore  it  is  not  indifferent  to  fol- 
low its  historical  development  before  tracing  an  outline  of  its  possi- 
ble apphcation  to  the  management  of  our  own  parks,  with  due  re- 
gard to  the  difference  of  aim  in  different  societies. 

(d)  The  first  garden-schools  surrounded  the  temples  and  hos- 
pitals. When  the  school  became  independent,  it  carried  the  garden- 
teaching  in  its  protestantism  against  the  demoded  (out  of  fashion) 
gods.  Alexander  gave  his  old  teacher,  Aristotle,  one  of  these  gar- 
den-schools, the  Nymphaeum,  full  of  rare  plants  and  animals. 

Tired  of  warring,  his  successors,  Eumenes,  Attalus,  Ptolemseus 
Soter,  transferred  their  rivalry  from  the  battle-field  to  their  garden- 
schools,  where  the  fruits  of  Asia  were  acclimatized,  and  where  vege- 
table and  animal  anatomy  and  physiology  attained,  at  once,  a  cer- 
tain excellence. 

Under  Theophrastus,  Zopyrus,  Erasistratus,  Nicander,  the 
school-gardens  of  Athens,  Pergamos,  Alexandria,  attracted  thous- 
ands of  students  of  nature.  Kings  felt  honored  by  being  their  dis- 
ciples, and  toxicology  became  almost  a  royal  corner  in  science.  In 
it  Mithridates  acquired  a  fame  by  his  experiments  on  conium,  opium, 
hyosciamus,  and  their  antidotes,  and  Cleopatra  by  hers  on  animal 
poisons,  under  the  tutorship  of  Cleophantus. 

Later  and  westward,  Theodoric  in  Lombardy,  and  Charlemagne 
in  his  whole  empire,  took  personal  pains  to  organize  garden-schools, 
among  other  barriers  they  meant  to  oppose  to  the  incoming  long 
hibernation  of  the  human  mind.  But  all  in  vain.  The  subsequent 
awakening  took  place  in  the  model  gardens  planned  and  grown  by 
Alfonzo  d'Est  and  Como  di  Medici,  where  was  prepared  a  new  birth 
of  mankind,  forcibly  called  Renaissance.  Next,  Henri  de  Navarra 
laid  out  the  Jardins  de  Montpellier,  which  became  the  hot-bed  of  an 
illustrious  lineage  of  naturalists  and  physicians. 

Not  content  with  these  reminiscences  I  went  again  in  search  of 
public  gardens  more  akin  to  our  ideal  of  garden-schools,  and  came 
back  with  more  definite  forms  of  open-air  teaching,  by  which  the  school 
may  be  almost  unlimitedly  enlarged  without  erecting  new  buildings. 


134   

(e)  The  yardin  des  Plantes  of  Paris  was  the  first  modern  gar- 
den-school. Buffon,  Daubenton,  Cuvier,  de  Jussieu,  Lamarck  (the 
intellectual  father  of  Charles  Darwin  by  the  by),  worked   with  their 

brains  and  hands  at  its  creation  and  successive  reorganizations 

This  garden,  besides  being  the  resort,  dehght  and  natural  book  of  the 
children  of  all  Europe,  became  the  laboratory  of  'de  Blainvilie, 
Cuvier,  Lacepede,  in  comparative  anatomy,  of  Claude  Bernard  and 
Brown  Sequard  in  physiology,  of  Becquerel  in  electricity ;  the  open- 
air  studio  of  Barrie  and  Mene,  who,  too  poor,  to  buy  models,  would 
bribe  theirs  with  part  of  their  own  dry-bread  breakfast  and  the 
certainty  of  fame  in  bronze.  So  many  naturalists,  physiologists,  artists, 
poets,  philosophers  have  studied  or  taught  there,  that  it  might  as 
well  now  be  called  ''Z<?  Jardi7i  des  gra?ids  ho?mnes'\  Though 
somewhat  antiquated  as  a  garden,  and  delapidated  as  a  museum 
which  hides  instead  of  showing  its  untold  treasures  of  Natural  His- 
tory, it  is  yet  the  Natural  school,  the  most  frequented  and  studied  in 
Europe ;  it  remains  a  paradise  of  flowers  for  women  and  children 
and  of  shades  for  old  folks  :  happy  those  who  can  yet  sit  on  its 
rough  old  benches,  under  its  arched  elms  and  lindens,  or  under  the 
giant  cedar  brought  there  from  Lebanon  in  the  hat  of  Daubenton. 

(f)  The  popular  gardens  of  Milan,  Florence,  the  Tuileries,  the 
Allies  of  the  Luxembourg,  the  Buttes  Chaumount,  and  the  Bois  de 
Boulogne,  the  Central,  Prospect,  Fairmount  and  Lincoln  parks,  and 
many  others  in  London,  Southampton,  Edinburgh,  etc.,  afford  more 
comfort  to  the  busy  than  instruction  to  the  young  folks ;  yet  I  am 
ready  to  admit  that  many  images  are  unconsciously  stored  in  these 
rambles,  which  turn  up  ideas  when  wanted. 

The  botanical  gardens  of  Padua,  Pisa,  Leyden,  Breslau,  Mont- 
pellier,  are  parts  of  the  vast  foundation  of  the  Renaissance  which 
revived  science  and  letters,  but  stood  too  high  above  the  wants  of 
the  masses  to  serve  us  as  models. 

The  discovery  I  made  nearest  to  our  ideal  garden  school  was 
the  park  of  Montsoury,  then  (1877)  in  preparation  for  the  children 
of  all  the  schools  and  colleges  of  Paris.  Its  plans  had  been  matured 
by  the  scientific  leaders  of  the  Municipal  Council  of  Paris,  Littre, 
Charton,  Bourneville.  This  park  consists  of  beautiful  grounds 
slightly  inclined  toward  the  sun,  and  ornamented  with  an  arabesque 
palace  of  the  Khedive,  now  an  observatory  and  museum.  When 
this  book  of  natural  history  will  be  all  written  in  green  and  blooming 
patches,  it  will  accomodate  by  squads  many  thousand  students  and 
children  every  day.  So  will,  in  a  less  formal  manner,  the  gardens 
of  Acclimatization  renovated  from  those  which  were,  part  of  the  en- 
gines of  the  Macedonian  Crusade  for  the  civilisation  and  unificadon 
of  the  old  world.  The  teachers  who  planned  these  garden-schools 
teach  yet,  twenty-three-hundred  years  after  their  death  :  so  mani- 
festly immortal  are  those  who  deserve  "la  vie  future". 


185   

These  were  the  nearest  approach  to  what  I  wanted  ;  though  1 
must  confess  nobody  but  one  who  had  seen  a  garden-school  in  his 
mind"  eyes  could  have  said  :    that  is  an  approach  to  it. 

(gj  However,  these  public  resorts  contain  other  elements  of 
education  interspersed  with  the  customary  attractions. 

These  European  Gardens  are  mythological,  fashionable,  botan- 
ical, zoological,  conservatories  of  exotics,  or  acclimatization  grounds, 
often  of  a  mixed  character  ;  almost  all  disposed  for  the  varied 
amusements  in  which  children,  and  many  grown  people  as  well,  find 
ample  scope  for  mirth,  activity,  versatility,  and  the  cultivation  of 
their  imagmg  and  imagimng  powers. 

Some  of  these  public  grounds,  stately  in  lines  and  subdued  in 
tones,  unfold  in  their  rectangular  walks,  like  the  Pincio  of  Rome,  all 
the  known  busts  of  antiquity — copies,  to  be  sure,  but  correct  enough 
to  let  the  passer-by  read  on  them  the  marble-proofs  of  the  text  of 
Tacitus,  Plutarch,  Appian:  that  is  already  garden-school  education. 
Let  me  acknowledge  here  that  our  parks  already  contain  monu- 
ments of  this  kind,  some  good,  some  ....  No  matter.  Consider- 
ing that  perfection  is  as  rare  in  a  bronze  or  marble  population  as 
in  those  temporarily  cast  in  flesh  and  bone, — that  is  one  fine  speci- 
men in  a  thousand  bad  or  indifferent  ones ;  we  must  find  our  statues 
as  good  as  the  average  anywhere  except  one :  namely  that  which 
represents  Walter  Scott  as  he  was  when  excess  of  labor  had  already 
deformed  his  cranium  by  enlargement  of  the  ventricles.  Such  a 
pathological  specimen  of  softening  of  the  brain,  instead  of  the  poet- 
ical figure  of  the  author  of  the  Waver ly  Novels  can  obliterate  for- 
ever in  the  young  the  sense  of  the  significance  of  intellectual  types : 
take  it  away,  tha.tpos/  truth  lie,  take  it  away ! 

(h)  Other  parks  —  not  unlike  the  Olympus,  or  the  Elysean 
Fields — are  peopled  with  gods  and  heroes  whose  sight  does  an  in- 
commmensurable  good  to  the  young  sight-seeker,  by  admitting  him 
to  physiognomic  intimacy  with  the  Past.  These  gods  and  heroes 
were  hypotheses  like  our  forces  :  attraction,  electricity  &c.  They 
had  lasted  durmg  and  for  the  social  evolution*  over  which  they  pre- 
sided; but  now,  nothing  remains  of  their  truly  divine  power  to  move 
the  world  onward  with  an  idea,  but  the  shadow  of  that  idea  fixed 
on  their  features  by  some  knowing,  though  unknown  artist.  So  far 
as  to  comprehend  Jupiter,  we  must  contemplate  his  representation 
attributed  to  Phidias  or  Aesculapius  —  finding  his  statue  the  perfect 
likeness  of  his  grand-father,  though  in  diminutive  proportions,  and 
in  every  trait  unlike  his  fathers,  the  artist,  —  we  do  not  stoop  to  in- 
quire if  the  god  of  medicine  was  in  the  flesh  the  son  of  Apollo  and 
the  grand-son  of  Jupiter,  but  we  see,  in  the  form  of  his  hereditary 
likeness,  that  the  ancients  knew  more  of  atavism  than  the  recent  ob- 
servations of  Broca  and  his  friends  have  suggested.  For  my  part  I 
could  not  have  realized  the  antique  revolt  of  women  against  the  Fate 


136   

before  the  Basin  of  Niobe  in  the  garden  of  Versailles,  but  I  did  at 
once  when  I  glanced  at  the  Niobe  of  the  Museum  of  Berlin.   , 

Thus  the  garden  and  the  museum,  far  above  the  book  in  vital- 
ities, correct  or  supplement  each  other's  impressions,  making  each 
generation  in  its  turn  live  in  the  past,  and  in  the  future  as  it  is  indi- 
cated in  the  aspirations  of  artists.  To  the  appreciation  of  our  psycho- 
physiological capacity  for  receiving  impressions,  like  heliotypes,  in 
passing,  is  due  the  creation  of  these  resorts  of  the  multitude  where  the 
education  of,  and  by  the  senses  is  incessant  and  forcible. 

(i)  To  the  English  belongs  the  honor  of  having  perfected  those 
immense  glass-palace-gardens,  out-door  or  glass-roofed-fields  equally 
pleasant  and  instructive.  Their  Kensington  and  Sydenham  (though 
stained  here  and  there  with  a  touch  of  the  horrible  taste  of  the  pre- 
ceding generation),  had  on  the  whole,  on  the  present  English  aesthet- 
ics, an  influence  which  had  created  the  name  of  Victorian 
period. 

Indeed,  the  development  and  rarifications  of  these  art-and- 
nature  institutions  explain  the  progress  in  the  taste  of  the  English,  from 
Milais  and  the  architect  of  the  city-hall  of  Manchester,  to  the  ad- 
mirable unnamed  thousand  designers  on  wood  and  metals,  potters  or 
modelers  in  clay,  &c.  The  virtue  of  this  blending  together  of  nature 
and  art  in  gardens  which  are  schools,  and  in  schools  replete  with  the 
beauties  of  the  garden,  has  been  so  happily  expressed  by  the  young 
prince  Leopold,  of  England,  —  speaking  as  a  pupil  of  Ruskin, 
but  in  terms  whose  warmth  is  his  own — that  I  will  quote  them : 
"The  highest  wisdom  and  the  highest  pleasure  need  not  be  costly  or 
exclusive,  but  may  be  almost  as  cheap  and  as  free  as  air  ;  and  the 
greatness  of  a  nation  must  be  measured — not  by  her  wealth  or  ap- 
parent power,  but — by  the  degree  in  which  all  her  people  have 
learned  together  from  the  world  of  books,  of  art,  of  nature  a  pure 
and  ennobling  joy." 

(j)  If  thus  spoke  a  prince  who  has  nothing  to  do,  what  must 
think  on  the  same  theme  those  whose  children  will  have  to  work  for 
a  living.  Barring  the^'few  who  will — with  or  without  education — 
show  genius  and  be  crowned  with  gold  or  thorns,  as  fate  has  it  in 
store,  the  millions  who  must  do  toil  (in  competition,  not  with  the  help 
of  the  machines)  can  hardly  expect  a  bare  living  from  their  produc- 
tions, unless  they  are  animated  by  the  individual's  taste.  But,  to 
train  the  taste,  all  the  written  books  of  the  world  cannot  teach  as 
much,  as  the  observation  of  the  distribution  of  the  resistances  in  a 
nut-shell,  or  the  diiferent  attitudes  of  a  branch  ot  white  lily  from  sun- 
rise to  sun-down. 

(k)  That  is  why  we  claim  our  parks  and  pubHc  grounds — not 
only  for  themselves  and  the  health  they  insure — but  as  the  places 
to  set  up  the  models  of  what  a  republican  education  must  be.  As 
I  said  in  my  own   right  and  duty :  "I  want   our   parks  preserved  as 


137   

play- grounds,  and  improved  as  garden-schools,  for  my  grand-sons 
Edward  and  John."* 

(1)  When  I  said  so,  I  was  asked  if  the  idea  of  garden-schools 
had  precedents,  and  I  have  shown  its  growth  in  history ;  if  there 
were  any  gardens  used  for  teaching,  and  we  found  many ;  if  there 
were  already  in  Europe  garden-schools  connected  with  any  system 
of  popular  education,  and  we  found  only  one  such  in  process 
of  formation;  if  grounds  of  public  amusement  were  adapted 
also  to  instruction,  and  this  duality  of  object  is  the  salient  trait 
of  the  most  famed  gardens.  Among  others,  Kew  has  seventy -five 
acres  devoted  to  study,  and  so  disposed  that  none  of  the  pleasure- 
seekers  are  gloomed  by  their  sight,  nor  the  students  disturbed  by  the 
idlers .  I  have  shown  that  the  improvements  in  European  gar- 
dens are  all  that  way — that  is,  tending  to  make  these  public  resorts 
more  educational ;  we  have  seen  them  losing  their  mythological, 
princely,  or  technical  features,  and  assuming  more  and  more  the  char- 
acter of  popular  institutions  of  taste,  of  learning,  and  of  health-culture. 

As  a  result  of  this  survey,  if  I  am  asked  which  of  the  European 
gardens  of  instruction  can  serve  us  a  model,  I  answer :  none. 
Aping  Europe  in  education,  as  well  as  in  other  matters  of  organic 
importance,  is  not  desirable.  The  crops  of  women  and  men  wanted 
here  are  neither  the  low  and  needy,  nor  the  artificial  and  unproduc- 
tive classes  whose  juxtaposition  makes  the  picturesque  side  and  the 
dangerous  foundation  of  old  societies.  Besides  it  would  be  idle  to 
argue  how  much  more  necessary  than  in  Europe  is  a  natural  system 
of  traming  the  masses  in  our  Republic,  where  the  problem  of  edu- 
cation, contains  the  solution  of  the  social  problem ;  and  where  all 
must  receive,  not  the  highest  possible  education,  but  the  most  physio- 
logical. And  it  is  directly  by  its  physiological  basis  and  bearing 
that  this  projected^  enlargement  of  our  school  and  school  system 
appeals   to  the  good  common  sense  of  the  country. 

The  philosophical  plan  of  the  garden-school  is  this  :  What  is 
for  select  children  a  real-school  on  a  tray,  and  for  infants  a  kinder- 
garten on  a  quadrated  table,  we  want  for  all  the  children — a  com- 
prehensive garden-school  system,  taking  place  in  true  gardens,  com- 
plemented by  museums,  and  complementing  the  public  school.  Its 
specificatons  are  these : 

68  In  cities,  like  New  York,  besides  the  tacilities  for  enjoy- 
ment which  the  young  and  the  old  must  find  in  the  jxirks,  adequate 
to  their  curiosity  and  activity — there  must  be  large  tracts  of  land 
and  water  arranged  as  so  many  pages  illustrative  of  nature. 

(a)  The  New  York  Central  Park — whose  constitution  and  by- 
.  laws  consecrate  it  "equally  to  the  pleasure  of  the  public  and  to  the 
instruction   of  youth" — should  contain  the   garden-school   proper, 


*)  See  "Our  Parks",  by  E.  Seguin,  1878  —  Brentano,  New  York. 


188  

which  is  not  a  botanical  garden  replete  with  a  strictly  systematic 
flora.  On  the  contrary,  it  mu?t  contain,  besides  specimens  of  a  simple 
classification  (e.  g.  de  Candolle's) — vegetables  grouped  according  to 
their  origin :  a  large  place  being  assigned,  in  contrasting  exposures, 
to  the  trees  and  plants  of  the  north  and  south  of  this  continent ; 
others  would  be  grouped  according  to  our  usage  as  domestic,  nu- 
tritious, medicinal,  toxic,  &c.,  others  according  to  their  affinities  for 
parasites,  or  the  contrary;  others  for  their  sympathetic  expressions 
of  vitality ;  others  as  models  of  lines  and  colors  to  be  transferred 
to  the  works  of  art  or  industry. 

The  zoological  collections  need  variety,  instead  of  a  surfeit 
of  monsters,  or  ferocious  animals  boarded  at  the  public  expense  for 
the  accommodation  of  crafty  showmen.  Industrious  animals  are  no 
more  deprived  of  poetical  attraction  than  the  bees  of  St.  Etienne 
and  the  ground- worms  of  Anzm. 

Children  would  be  mimensely  interested  to  find  in  full  operaton 
the  appliances  for  artificial  hatching,  breeding,  and  fattening  poultry, 
raismg  the  silk-worm,  etc.  There  are  happiness  and  wealth  in  the 
direction  of  the  tastes  of  the  people  to  such  productive  and  peace- 
ful occupations. 

There  is  no  more  reason  for  the  waters  of  a  park  to  look 
dead  than  for  its  trees  to  look  meaningless.  They  can  be  made  live- 
ly with  the  appliances  of  hydraulics  and  with  specimens  of  their  own 
powers ;  they  may  represent  miniatures  of  the  great  American  water- 
falls, Niagara,  Montmorency,  etc.;  they  must  be  alive  with  shells, 
fishes,  w  iter- weeds,  and  blossoms;  and  show  plainly  the  wonders 
and  remunerations  of  fish  culture. 

Geology  claims  for  its  study  the  rocks  and  caves  of  the  park ; 
not  only  on  account  of  their  interesting  formation,  but  for  the 
facility  they  offer  of  representmg,  by  insertion  in  sections,  the  min- 
eral wealth  and  topography  of  the  country. 

Many  other  teachings  of  realities  have  their  places  surely 
marked  in  our  future  garden-school,  as  drawing  and  carving  from 
plants  and  animals — all  open-air  schools,  which  need  no  buildings 
and  will  breed  no  contagions.  We  insist  only  on  the  adoption  of  the 
principle,  confident  that  its  consequences,  health  and  healthy  knowl- 
edge, will  follow. 

(b)  The  small  squares  should  be  planted  on  a  concerted  plan ; 
so  that  each  would  present  in  a  series  of  seasons  and  years  the  plants 
and  flowers  which  leave  in  the  imagination  the  same  imprints  of 
nature's  loveliest  ornaments. 

(c)  The  grounds  of  intermediate  size  should  be  dressed  accord- 
ing to  the  wants  of  the  wards  in  which  they  lie ;  being  also  influ- 
enced by  a  general  plan  corresponding  with  the  destinies  of  the  city. 
For,  unless  we  live  and  die  like  cattle,  we  must  feel  the  current 
of  life  in  which    we  live,  in  order  to  move  in  it  understandingly  and 


139 

happily  ;   and  these  ideas  must  be   hatched   in   the  young  brains  in 
order  to  be  realized  by  the  motive  minds. 

But  to  be  more  explicit  in  my  illustrations : 

(d)  Union  Square  and  Madison  Square  are  well  located  and 
shaped  to  do  honor  to  the  civil  and  military  heroes  of  the  Republic, 
among  larger  jets  ox  water  and  pyramids  of  fresh  floweas  at  the  foot 
of  each  tree,  even  what  remains  of  the  city-hall-park  would  be  pro- 
tected by  the  statues  of  our  few  worthy  city  magistrates. 

(e)  Washington  Square  is  wanted  for  an  avarium,  rosarium,  and 
other  collections  of  flowers  and  vines,  in  order  to  enlarge  or  elevate 
several  of  our  best  art-industries.  It  is  situated  in  the  center  of  a 
population  which  enfranchises  us  from  the  enormous  tribute  once 
paid  to  foreign  skill  for  artificial  flowers,  leaves,  trimmings,  bird- 
mounting,  etc.  A  little  encouragement  by  fine  models,  and  a  little 
education  of  the  eye,  would  soon  enable  this  truly  respectable  part 
of  our  population  to  compete  with  the  Italian  and  the  French  in 
foreign  markets,  and  to  levy  industrial  tributes  where  we  were  once 
tnbutaries.  As  an  illustration,  three  sisters  of  one  of  my  friends 
studied  the  perfect  roses  fronting  the  Luxembourg  with  such  suc- 
cess that  Batton  paid  for  their  roses  six  dollars  each  ;  and  there  are 
in  that  row  four  well-known  rose-trees  which  must  have  repaid  to 
the  city  of  Paris  one  million  francs  in  unequalled  art-imitations. 

I  regret  to  say  that  money  is  found  to  open  new  drives,  but 
none  to  plant  m  our  parks  a  rose  worth  copying,  nor  a  pink,  a  hya- 
cinth, a  cluster  of  meadow-saifron  peeping  with  naturalness  through 
the  young  grass  to  invite  the  pencil  of  artists  to  grace,  or  the  tongue 
of  children  to  picturesqueness.  But  my  heart  is  too  full  of  the 
emptiness  of  ideas  v/hich  rules  these  public  matters.  Humiliation 
silences  me,  and  other  separated  public- grounds  call  for  a  rescue  and 
a  nobler  use. 

(h)  Tompkins  Square  has  ceased  to  be  a  muddy  Sahara,  to  be 
a  false  Madison  Square,  without  special  provisions  for  children ; 
whereas  it  ought  to  have  been  made  a  play-ground  and  garden- 
school.  There  are  around  it  20,000  child.ien,  whose  homes  are 
narrow  and  bad,  whose  only  play-thing  is  the  dirt  they  splash  at 
the  passing  cars  for  an  amusement,  having  no  other.  The  park  be- 
ing planted  to  not  be  touched,  it  is  for  such  customers  on  insuperable 
provocation  to  destroy  everything  in  it ;  but  if  part  of  it  were  arranged 
for  games  under  the  guardianship  of  a  few  gymnasts  instead  of  po- 
licemen, the  rest  of  the  grounds,  consecrated  to  instruction  will  be 
respected,  nay,  loved  as  the  Parisians  love  the  Luxembourg,  &c. — 
joys  and  lessons  of  their  youth.  During  the  development  of  that 
tender  feeling  for  nature  —  which  is  reciprocal  —  children  will  con- 
ceive a  new  order  of  relations  with  their  fellows,  with  the  flowers  for 
their  perfume,  and  colors,    with   the  vegetables  which  nourish  those 

(15) 


140  

who  grow  them.  Hence  will  be  brought  to  their  sensorium  the 
truly  religious  idea  of  the  duties  of  man  towards  the  flora  which 
breathe  hfe-gases  into  our  nostrils,  of  the  interchange  of  vital  ele- 
ments between  plants  and  animals,^so  beautiful  an  operation  — 
whose  perpetuation  is  the  sine  qua  non  of  the  perpetuity  of  man  on 
earth,  and  of  the  earth  as  a  living  planet. 

(g)  More  important  yet  —  that  is  for  the  course  of  sympathe- 
tic and  aesthetic  education  —  is  the  consecration  in  visible  form 
of  places  identified  with  the  past  and  future  of  the  population. 

Of  this  kind  is  the  New  York  Battery  where  for  several  cen- 
turies, all  ages  and  conditions  met  to  greet  the  entrance  of  ships  ex- 
pected or  unknown,  bringing  riches  and  news.  This  sight  fired  the 
hearts  of  the  young  to  become  great  merchants,  brave  sea-captains, 
daring  ship-builderrs,  and  to  extend  the  maritime  city  around  its 
harbor. 

I  will  speak  of  it  as  if  miserable  misers,  gamblers  and  politicians, 
had  not  stolen  part  of  it,  obstructed  the  rest,  and  turned  out  the 
youth  to  take  their  inspirations  in  the  enfers  of  Wall  street,  where 
the  proceeds  of  American  synergy  are  divided  like  a  booty. 

The  Battery  is  the  frontispiece  of  New  York,  grand  in  its  ma- 
rine and  distant  decorations  of  lands  like  scarfs,  and  islands  like 
jewels.  Let  it  be  the  grand  portal-entrance  of  the  metropolis  of  a 
continent.  Do  not  allow  its  land  to  betray  its  water,  but  let  both 
harmonize  their  Hnes  and  colors  in  a  perspective  which  must  vie 
with  the  souvenirs  of  Corinth  and  the  fadmg  beauties  of  Venice. 

In  this  ornamentation,  respecting  the  touches  of  nature,  but  ab- 
sorbing them  into  our  art,  let  the  Battery  be  open — as  it  was  for  the 
Indian — up  to  the  Bowling-Green,  Elysean  in  its  walks,  like  the  Park  of 
Monceaux,  and  limited,  right  and  left,  by  monuments  inspired  by  the 
site's  ideal :  museums  of  marine,  of  maritime  implements,  of  sea  pro- 
ductions  and  wonders,  schools  of  drawing,  naval  architecture,  &c. 

In  front,  let  it  immerse  its  marble  steps  and  horizontal  decors  as 
a  live  mythology,  look  at  the  bordering  lands  and  islands  as  distant 
accessories  and  extensions.  Governor's  Island,  the  only  possible 
situation  for  temporary  exhibitions,  her  Httle  sister,  the  light-bearer 
of  French  Liberty,  and  Staten  Island  as  the  main  sporting  and  study- 
ing ground  of  the  schools,  and  the  festive  resort  of  an  overworked 
population. 

Of  this  idea  (whose  development  does  not  belong  here)  the 
starting  point  is  the  Battery.  Let  this  inspiring  ground  ot  the  fa- 
thers be  decorated  in  a  style  worthy  the  place  'it  occupies  in  our 
annals,  impressible  to  the  stranger,  and  promoting  in  the  yodth  a 
desire  to  rank  among  the  men  who  have  made  this  sea-port  one  of 
the  sights  of  the  world. 

69.  What  would  apply  to  New  York  could  be  adapted  to  the 
wants  and  circumstances  of  other  cities: 


141  

(a)  In  Philadelphia  the  grounds  of  Fairmont  have  been  left  by 
the  Centennial  ExhiL)ition  as  if  prepared  for  transformation  into  gar- 
den-schools: even  the  trees  and  shrubs  being  labelled  with  their 
names.  The  conservatory  of  exotics  is  almost  perfect,  so  the  mu- 
seum of  art  which  need  only  to  be  put  in  closer  connection  with  the 
school-system.  The  remaining  buildings  can  be  appropiated  to  this 
system  as  sheds  and  covered  play-grounds,  for  gymnastics  of  ensem- 
ble^ and  as  repositories  of  the  collections  of  the  real-school,  to  be 
studied  on  the  spot,  or  borrowed  by  the  shut-up  schools  of  the  city 
for  extemporaneous  demonstration,  drawing,  modeling,  &c. 

(b)  The  Park  of  Cincinnati  offers  an  invigorating  air  to  the 
young  population  stifling  in  brick  schools  between  the  Ohio  and  the 
turbid  canal  of  the  Miami  derisively  called  Rhine.  It  is  too  small— 
hke  our  Central  Park  —  to  be  encumbered  witn  the  appliances  and 
technicalities  which  can  find  their  place  in  adjacent  grounds ;  but 
must  reserve  the  Park  itself  for  the  teaching  of  art  by  nature  sem- 
pervirens  and  se?npervivens, 

Chicago  presents  more  room.  Her  Southern  Park  offers  a 
square  field  of  several  miles  to  the  imagination  of  the  farm-and-gar- 
den  teacher  and  hygienist ;  and  her  Lincoln  Park,  a  belt  of  green 
and  flowers  in  which  can  be  set  specimens  of  the  minerals  hidden 
on  the  opposite  shore  in  a  magnetic  circle. 

(c)  Smaller  cities  have  more  room  to  devote  to  teaching,  there- 
fore more  choice  for  a  site — which  of  itself  may  become  a  lesson. 
Take,  for  instance,  Atlanta,  burned  by  the  same  sun  against  which 
Augusta  has  protected  herself  by  four  and  six  rows  of  foliage. 

Instead  of  keeping  hatefully  barren  the  grounds  shaved  to  op- 
pose the  march  of  Sherman,  why  not  plant  them  as  school-gardens 
and  shades ;  pushing  this  new  vegetation — which  everywhere  covers 
so  much  of  spilled  blood — to  that  peaceful  spring,  whose  silent  water 
cures  the  sick,  and  whose  Egeria,  surrounded  by  a  happier  genera- 
tion, would  cure  old  moral  sores,  too.  Why  not  make  at  once 
of  this  field  of  resentment  a  garden-school  for  the  youth  of  a  city, 
where  education  is  mkch  honored,  and  in  a  state  where  the  most 
highly  bred  women  too  refuge  in  teaching,  against  the  miseries 
brought  on  by  satanic  pride, 

70.  But  it  is  for  the  village  children  that  the  natural  lessons 
and  training  of  the  garden-school  are  most  needed.  Sirange,  since 
nature  is  at  the  door,  and  often  forces'  an  entrance  in  the  school 
through  the  window  in  the  shape  of  a  clematis  or  the  scent  of  the 
honey-suckle;  strange,  yes;  but  too  true. — Nowhere  else  the  inabil- 
ity of  the  present  curriculum  to  develop  manhood  in  man  is  so  mani- 
fest as  in  the  village  school,  nor  so  great  the  necessity  of  imparting 
powers  sooner  than  knowledge  to  youth,  and  of  giving  preference 
to  that  knowledge  which  can  be  directly  converted  into  power. 


142  

(a)  The  powers  of  acting  upon  nature — instead  of  being  con- 
stantly overpowered  by  it — being  the  pre-requisite  of  happiness  in 
country -life,  country-education  must  train  in  the  child  these  con- 
quering powers :  "man  loves  his  conquest,"  but  to  conquer  nature  he 
must  be  trained  in  physiological  intimacy  with  its  local  modalities. 
To  that  end  the  country-kindergarten  must  borrow  its  forms  from 
the  geometry  of  vegetation ;  the  garden-school  of  large  cities  be  re- 
placed by  excursions ;  the  fantastic  school-garden  of  the  town  and 
colleges  assume  a  practical  turn,  without  losing  its  ideas,  and  come 
nearer  the  farming-school,  without  the  inducement  of  siciusd  paying 
as  in  Mettray  or  Hempton.  No,  the  out-door  country-school  aims 
only  at  developing  the  strength,  the  manual  skill,  and  the  taste  neces- 
sary to  make  the  young  feel  that  they  possess  the  means  of  master- 
ing nature  better  than  did  their  parents. 

(b)  However,  in  the  country  other  elements  of  happiness  than 
power  over  nature  are  needed  to  attach  man  to  the  place  of  his 
birth  or  choice.  Art  and  historical  objects  must  bind  him  by  their 
attractive  forms  and  reminiscenses,  speaking  to  the  imagination  as 
flowers  do  speak  to  the  odor  and  to  the  sight,  in  other  words, 
"man",  in  the  field  as  elsewhere,  "does  not  live  only  upon  bread  but 
upon  every  thing  which  nourishes  his  mind."  But  it  is  not  possible 
for  the  village  to  have  its  artistic,  historical,  floral  collections  and 
festivities  strongly  attaching  the  young  ones  to  their  penates  ? 

This  idea  will  be  qualified  as  a  pastoral  impossibility  by  the 
teachers  among  us,  but  may  be  proved  to  be  practicable  by  the  fact 
that  it  exists  already /a^r^m,  needing  only  a  little  foresight  for  its  gen- 
eralization. 

(c)  A  garden-school  may  be  organized  in  the  smallest  village 
by  an  understanding  among  the  families  in  regard  to  the  kind  of  or- 
namental trees  and  bushes  they  select,  and  to  the  flowers  each  will 
cultivate  every  year,  so  that  with  little  expense  collections  of  plants 
many  times  more  varied  than  those  of  our  Central  Park  could  be 
seen.  Indeed,  they  are  already  found  without  method  in  many 
villages  of  New  England  :  in  Ansonia,  for  instance,  where  almost 
every  front-yard  is  adorned  with  the  same  flowers  which  we  raised 
ourselves  in  our  college-gardens  fifty  years' ago. 

(d)  The  same  inducement  obtains  in  regards  to  a  village- 
museum.  How  pleasant  it  would  be  to  devote  a  place  to  it  near 
the  public  record  and  library ;  each  generation  bringing  to  it,  its 
best  women  and  men,  and  finest  children ;  a  sort  of  inexpensive, 
though  an  accurate  gallery,  which  would  soon  demonstrate  the  tradi- 
tion, deviation,  or  improvement  of  the  local  type,  warning  of  what 
ought  to  be  done  to  elevate  the  population  in  beauty  and  capacity 
— adding  to  it,  as  they  may  happen,  local  events,  discoveries,  inven- 
tions, rarities  of  nature  or  of  ait. 

Is  that  too  an  Utopia  ?  Then  see,  how  simple  but  right-minded 


148   

farmers  have  realized  it  in  Deerfield  :  Under  its  most  venerable  elms, 
in  a  house  of  the  i8th  century,  lie  the  relics  of  the  Massachusetts- 
Indians,  of  the  revolutionary  war,  of  the  stupendous  house-keeping 
of  the  past,  of  the  antique  superstitions  (overlooking  the  present 
ones,  of  course),  of  mineralogy,  geology,  fossils,  botany,  home  in- 
dustries, and  many  other  treasures,  which  give  children  a  clearer 
idea  of  the  life  of  their  fathers  than  any  formal  description. 

The  paramount  object  of  country  education  is  to  develop  in  the 
young  a  love  and  appreciation  of  home  life  and  of  their  surround- 
ings in  harmony  with  their  prospects.  Youth  has  a  horror  of  the 
vacuum ;  and  if  their  emotional  capacity  is  not  educated  in  and  for 
their  horizon,  they  are  carried  away  from  a  home  empty  of  ideals, 
into  the  vortex  of  competition  where  the  weak  soon  perish.  For 
this  individual  evil  and  social  danger,  a  vague  culture  and  non-phys- 
iological education  are  responsible. 

What  we  make  children  love  and  desire  is  more  important  than 
what  we  make  them  learn ;  at  any  rate  make  them  learn  what  they 
can  reach,  and  make  them  love  what  they  learn.  Miss  Leanna  Ha- 
gore  of  Abingdon,  111.,  succeeds  in  it,  and  others,  as  we  shall  see. 

(e)  I  have  tried  to  present  with  clearness  this  subject  of  out- 
door education,  but  had  to  make  it  purely  didactic ;  though  its  his- 
tory would  be  of  magnetic  interest,  but  its  historians  know  no  date 
nor  method.  However,  I  hope  I  have  made  out  its  main  practical 
divisions,  i)  The  kindergarten  to  amuse,  occupy  and  instruct  young 
children.  2)  The  garden-schools  to  study  nature  and  to  exercise. 
3)  The  town  school-garden  to  create  a  taste  for,  4)  The  country- 
school-garden  to  prepare  the  hand  and  mind  for  agriculture.  These 
interested  us,  and  the  others  were  omitted,  partly  for  want  of  room 
viz. :  The  natural  history  excursions,  the  summer  schools  of  experi- 
mentation, and  the  farm-school,  or  model  farm. 

Add  to  this  plan  of  garden-school  its  crowning  features,  free,  ac- 
cessible to  all,  the  national  park  of  Niagara,  the  Yosemite  reservation 
and  canons  and  volcanoes  favorable  to  the  study  of  geology,  hy- 
drology, mineralogy,  and  mining-engineering,  whicli  it  is  not  in  my 
province  to  describe,  but  which  must  be  preserved  sacred  for  the 
pleasure  and  instruction  of  the  American  youth — such  are  the  re- 
presentations of  tJie  school's  protestantism  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
book,  but  no  more  of  this,  directly. 

(  f )  Indirectly  we  have  seen  that  the  garden-school  and  other 
forms  of  out-door  teaching  are  necessary  for  the  health,  the  perfect 
development,  the  buoyancy  of  youth,  and  for  the  teaching  of  several 
matters  which  may  be  called  inherent  to  the  soil,  as  natural  history, 
geology,  botany.  But  there  are  other  matters  which,  without  being 
inseparable  from  the  soil,  have  their  foundation  on  it,  as  geogra- 
phy, and  its  derivative,  the  international  metric  system.  I  had  re- 
solved to  keep  clear  of  the  classical  subjects  of  instruction  but  can 


144   • 

not  avoid  those  which  have  to  be  restored  to  the  physiological  order. 

71.  GEOGRAPHY.-^It  is  a  trite  remark  that  nothing  is  so  soon 
forgotten  as  geography.  This  is  due  to  the  want  of  interest  in  what 
is  taught  as  such,  and  also  to  the  vague  location  of  the  objects  studied. 

(d)  The  interest  to  be  created  depends  on  circumstances,  and 
the  matter  can  not  be  discussed  here,  but  I  found  an  example  of  it 
worth  quoting  at  the  JVeU  Ausstellung,  which  was  lost  to  reward 
among  the  richly  bound  reports  of  famed  schools. 

This  was  a  private  correspondence  between  the  pupils  of  the 
primary  school  of  Peronne,  in  the  north  of  France,  and  those  of  the 
school  of  Dieu-le-fils,  in  the  south.  The  young  correspondents  de- 
scribe to  each  other  the  natural  characters,  the  climate,  the  situation 
the  soil,  the  products,  manufactures,  usages,  festivities,  and  varieties 
of  their  respective  towns,  townships,  and  provinces  (departments). 
These  letters  received  and  answered  with  manifest  pleasure,  taught 
things  impossible  to  find  in  print,  and  to  forget.  They  created,  I 
was  told,  and  believe,  among  the  young  writers^  feelings  of  interest 
which  promised  to  ripen  into  friendship.  They  make  them  love  the 
distant  places  seen  in  these  descriptions  as  the  home  of  the  friends, 
and  feel  that  identity  of  soil  and  population  which  is  fully  expressed 
only  by  the  word  Patria.  This  small  contribution  of  tvv^o  provincial 
schools  escaped  the  attention  of  the  commission  of  rewards  and  re- 
ceived hkely  none  but  our  own  tribute  of  admiration :  In  our 
judgment,  it  is  a  mode  of  making  geography  lovable ;  a  matter 
which  can  be  extended  from  one  nation  to  another  with  humane  re- 
sults ;  which  does  not  exclude  the  book,  nor  the  chart,  but  animates 
both,  and  binds  them  with  the  results  of  personal  observation  in  a 
net- work  of  good  feelings. 

(b)  Greater  than  the  want  of  interest  in  the  study  of  geography 
is  its  absence  of  physical  basis  on  earth,  and  of  physiological  basis 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  student  —  who  does  not  feel  the  rela- 
tions of  his  self  with  the  objects  of  his  study  ?  —  in  a  study  whose 
importance  precisely  resides  in  the  accurate  relation  of  these  positions. 

In  geography,  the  relative  position  is  much  more  important  than 
the  distances  and  dimensions  whose  figures  take  so  much  of  lime 
and  room.  The  relative  position  studied  on  charts  may  properly  be 
said  en  I' air,  whilst  in  reality  the  geographical  position  begins  — 
that  is  takes  its  starting  point  —  in  the  center  ot  consciousness  of  the 
student  relatively  to  orientation.  If  the  child  has  not  first  settled 
his  orientation,  all  his  notions  of  geography  will  dance  a  saraband 
in  his  skull.  If  I  were  to  speak  to  beavers  and  prairie-dogs,  I  should 
not  have  to  insist  upon  the  usefulness  of  orientation  ;  but  man  be- 
ing a  progressive  animal,  has  the  capacity  of  forgetting  as  well  as 
of  learning ;  so  that  he  now  asks :  why  the  pyramids : 

(J)  I  do  not  want  such  a  huge  thing  in  every  garden  school ; 
but  a  gnomon  as  small   and  accurate  as  possible,  around  which   the 


145  

sideral  and  terrestrial  notions  will  be  given,  and  where  the  children 
will  figure  on  the  sand  with  their  shovels  any  parts  of  the  planisphere 
duly  located. 

In  Central  China,  it  is  said,  every  rustic  brings  the  stranger  into 
his  garden,  and  in  the  garden  to  his  well,  showing  it  as  the  center 
of  the  world.  And  this  it  is  for  him.  So  for  children  who  want  to 
know  the  sphere  they  live  on;  its  center  is  at  home,  at  school,  in  the 
garden-school,  whence,  guided  by  orientation,  their  minds  will  fly, 
with  the  accuracy  of  the  bee  or  pigeon  from  the  confines  of  this 
world  toward  the  others.  That  is  why  gnomons  and  compasses 
Should  be  more  common  in  the  schools  than  clocks. 

There  is  another  reason  to  supply  the  schools,  and  most  par- 
ticularly all  the  garden-schools  with  gnomons;  for  the  gnomon  — 
as  such  —  is  the  starting  point  of  location  of  geographical  facts  in 
the  bram ;  and  it  can  and  must  be  made  —  as  a  meter  —  the  stand- 
ard and  standing  measure  of  the  mensuration  of  all  things  measurable : 
Orientation,  the  mother  of  mensuration ;  the  gnomon,  father  to  the 
meter. 

72.  Mensuration.  When  there  were  only  a  few  mathemati- 
cians, geometricians,  physicists  and  physicians,  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers. It  was  of  little  consequence  for  the  masses  what  kind  of 
weights,  measures,  and  moneys  were  used  to  cheat  them.  I  have 
seen,  when  young,  in  a  market  place,  in  Nivernais,  wheat  and  oats 
change  hands  according  to  seven  different  kinds  of  bushels,  so  called  ; 
and  in  New  York,  people  have  given  me  twelve  cents  and  kept  thir- 
teen as  the  two  equitable  halves  of  an  honest  English  shilling. 
There  are  possibly  no  higher  motives  to  change  a  system  (in  this  case 
a  chaos)  than  this;  but  there  are  many  more  to  teach  the  new  one. 
Did  I  call  the  metric  system  new?  Pshaw !  It  was  new  in  1800  when 
Von  Humboldt  made  use  of  it  in  his  book  on  electricity :  but  it  was 
no  longer  new,  only  obligatory,  when  my  father  began  to  prescribe 
by  it  in  1840.  We  can  not  delay  its  adoption  in  this  country;  "it 
will,bring  us  into  harmony  with  more  than  a  score  of  nations,  save 
millions  annually  in  computations,  and  a  year  of  the  school-life  of 
every  child"  ;  lastly  it  is  learned  without  fatigue,  and  by  sensorial 
processes  which  enhance  immensely  the  powers  of  observation  and 
execution  :  This  is  what  touches  us  the  most  — 

(a)  Since  the  metric  system  must  prevail,  let  it  be  taught  practi- 
cally, at  once,  to  all,  and  by  the  physiological  method :  the  only  one 
which  can  develop  in  the  mind  of  the  masses  that  accuracy  of 
measurement  and  of  proportions  which  gives  a  superior  value  to  the 
products  of  science,  art,  and  labor  at  large. 

(b)  It  has  been  too  much  the  habit  to  teach  it  by  the  classic,  or 
verbal  method ;  or  by  means  of  illustrations ;  or  at  best  to  use  the 
typical  weights  and  measures  only  to  help  the  metric  theory,  or  of 
metric   illustrations.     All   over   Europe,  and  in  the  best  schools  of 


146  — 

this  country,  the  metric  system  is  taught  by  this — Jet  us  say  eclectic 
method — ,  which  works  as  follows  :  At  schools,  the  typical  weights 
and  measures  are  crowded,  some  even  folded  in  a  glass-case  ;  and 
when  the  turn  comes  for  the  metric  system  to  be  explained,  next  to 
the  United  States  monetary  decimal  system,  they  are  taken  out  of 
the  box,  shown  to  the  students,  and  even  handled  by  them,  but  re- 
turned instanter  to  be  locked  up  in  the  glass-case  ;  just  as  the  blood 
of  St  Janviar  is  returned  to  its  shnne  after  it  has  liguefied. 

To  make  a  people  learn  a  new  system  of  mensuration,  ani 
moreover  to  make  them  forget  or  disregard  an  old  inveterate  one, 
this  lax  practice  of  teaching,  which  I  politely  called  ''a  method", 
will  never  do. 

(c)  The  metric  system,  as  a  "system",  demands  but  a  few  hours 
of  oral  instruction :  it  is  so  simple  and  so  compact ;  but  as  a 
"meter"  or  standard  of  all  things  to  be  measured  at  every  turn  of 
the  mind,  of  the  eye,  and  of  the  hand,  by  a  whole  nation,  it  needs 
the  sensorial  training  which  physiological  education  can  alone 
plan  and  carry  out.  In  other  terms,  we  must  make  it  enter,  go  out, 
re-enter  through  the  senses,  till  it  comes  in  and  out  by  the  uncon- 
scious and  sure  process  of  automatism.  Then  we  possess  the 
metnc  system,  because  we  have  been  taken  possession  of  by  it. 

(d)  The  means  and  methods  of  impressing  the  mind  with  the 
metric  prototypes  through  the  senses,  far  from  being  exhausted,  are 
hardly  indicated,  though  they  are  susceptible  of  such  perfection  as 
to  become  applicable  to  the  advancement  of  arts  and  sciences,  and 
in  particular  to  the  introduction  of  mathematical  precision  in  the 
practice  of  the  liberal  professions. 

I  have,  so  to  speak,  set  up  the  metro  -  gnomon  which  children 
can  not  escape,  seeing  it.  At  its  sight,  they  could  instantly  locate 
and  measure  all  what  they  have  to  learn  concerning  astronomy,  geo- 
graphy, history,  regional  botany,  the  start  of  inventions,  discoveries, 
&c.,  which,  taught  otherwise,  lay  piled  in  their  brain,  soon  to  be  for- 
gotten, for  want  of  physiological  localisation  and  mensuration,  in  a 
word,  the  metro-gnomon  is  the  etalon  on  and  around  which,  all  the 
mental  acquisitions  of  the  child  arrange  themselves,  in  the  same  order 
as  in  the  sensorium. 

On  this  center  of  perceptions  would  be  found  the  name,  date 
of  origin,  and  population  of  the  place,  its  altitude,  latitude  and  longi- 
tude, distance  of  other  points  of  interest  in  kilometers  as  on  the 
Boston  and  Providence  R.  R.,  and  on  all  the  routes  of  Europe ;  and 
in  meters  that  of  the  school-house  and  public  institutions.  There 
would  be  prominent  the  solar  time,  thermometry,  borometry,  hygro- 
metry  of  the  open  atmosphere,  in  comparison  with  the  same  pheno- 
mena in  the  school-room. 

(e)  As  we  approach  this,  the  yard  and  its  accessories,  such  as 
fountains,  water-basins,  drinking-cups  must  be  metrically  measured, 


147  

and  so  inscribed.  A  new  school  building  must  be  metric  from 
basement  to  gables,  and  the  old  ones  repaired  or  enlarged  in  metric 
proportions,  etc.  The  school  furniture  and  apparatus  all  metric, 
the  metre  itself  painted  on  the  walls  of  every  school  room,  stand- 
ing prototype  of  all  the  dimensions  and  proportions  to  be  studied 
or  referred  to. 

Let  us  do  likewise,  and  set  up  here  the  metre  before   going 
further. 


(16) 


148 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Metric  System. 

73.  The  Metric  System  (a)  is  the  great  legacy  of  the  Eigh- 
teenth to  the  Nineteenth  Century.  It  is  the  fnltre  par  excellence,  since 
it  refers  our  most  vulgar  or  infinitesimal  measures  to  those  of  the  dis- 
tant worlds  through  the  typical  measure  of  our  planet.  It  is  also 
the  system  of  reckoning  par  excellence, 'svciQ,^  it  treats  all  the  quantities, 
either  concrete,  abstract,  or  hypothetic,  separately  or  together,  by 
the  same  systematic  decimal  operation.  Therefore  a  teacher  of 
great  authority  was  enabled  to  say  :  "Le  systeme  metrique  franyais, 
chaque  fois  que  je  I'expose  a  mes  eleves,  que  je  leur  raconte  I'histoire 
de  sa  decouverte,  je  me  sens  prise  d'une  profonde  emotion."  (Car- 
oline Progier's  correspondence.) 

(b)  On  another  hand,  how  is  it  that  one  of  her  co-laborers 
could  differ  so  much  in  his  feelmgs  on  the  same  subject  as  to  be 
obliged  to  say :  "Every  time  I  have  to  write  or  to  speak  of  the  metric 
system,  I  feel  my  courage  descend  below  the  diaphragm,  and 
would  like  to  run  away."  Why  that  contrast  ? Because  the  con- 
fidence of  the  noble  woman  comes  from  her  speaking  to  children — 
whose  fontanel  is  not,  or  is  imperfectly  closed ;  and  the  diffidence 
of  the  ill-starred  man  from  addressing  an  audience  whose  ossification 
leaves  nothing  to  be  desired,  nor  any  chance  of  development  for 
new  convolutions, — an  anatomical  contrast  bearing  inversely  on  the 
physiological  issues  of  education.  I  put  emphasis  on  this  fact,  be- 
cause it  marks  the  point  at  which  new  mental  processes  may  yet 
be  registered  on  the  gray  matter,  but  after  which  any  confirmed  au- 
tomatism of  the  mind  can  hardly  ever  be  got  rid  of. 

(c)  Happily,  only  two  nations  have  kept  themselves  excom- 
municated from  the  metric  league — unhappily  ours  is  one  of  the 
two; — and  that  for  no  other  reason  but  the  negative  one  of  not 
having  made  the  study  and  practice  of  the  metric  system  obligatory 
in  their  schools.     Had  it  been  otherwise,  the  judgment  of  John  C. 


149  

Dalton  would  hold  good  in  England  as  it  does  in  France,  in  this 
Republic  as  in  the  German  Empire:  "No  one  who  has  once  em- 
ployed the  metric  system  practically,  could  ever  use  any  other." 
Therefore,  it  is  pernicious  to  put  off  its  teaching  and  practice  in 
our  schools. 

But,  besides,  in  all  careers  of  human  activity,  the  ignorance  of 
this  all  but  international  quantitative  language  leaves  us — as  a  nation 
— in  ignorance  of  the  scientific  doings  of  other  nations,  and  exposed 
to  didcamara  comphments  like  the  one  Professor  Charcot,  of  Paris, 
administered  at  Cork  to  the  British  Medical  Association  :  "It  is  not 
your  national  idiom  which  debars  me  from  becoming  familiar  with 
your  great  authors,  it  is  your  Gothic  weights  and  measures." 

(d)  As  for  the  mode  of  teaching  "the  International  Metric 
System,"  half  an  hour  suffices  to  explain  its  theory;  and  its  mechanism 
demands  only  a  few  lessons,  instead  of  a  year  wasted  in  overcoming 
the  duodecimal  incongruities ;  but  its  habit  will  depend  on  making 
everything  metric  about  the  child,  as  I  have  suggested  to  do  for  the 
school-furniture,  etc.  Thus  surrounded,  he  will  have  insensibly  in- 
culcated unto  himself  the  prototype  of  mathematical  proportions 
and  of  natural  beauties. 

When  a  nascent  avocation  commands  the  early  use  of  instru- 
ments which  give  more  reach  and  precision  to  the  operations  of  the 
senses,  the  child  masters  them  easier  by  metric  than  by  other  calcu- 
lations; besides  the  rapidity  and  clearness  of  the  results.  As  for 
those  who  aim  at  the  development  of  the  higher  senses  to  perceive 
and  to  execute,  let  them  not  ignore  that  a  meter  of  some  sort — and 
we  have  only  one  worth  naming — must  be  the  constant  ideal  in  the 
life-long  training  of  a  Prometheus. 

(e)  On  these  different  scores,  the  metric  system  must  not  be 
dismissed  as  are  futile  acquirements,  at  the  very  time  it  might  become 
the  leader  of  calculus  and  the  regulator  of  human  creations.  On 
the  contrary,  let  it  occupy  a  large  place  in  education ;  firstly,  as  "the 
system  of  reckoning  which  nobody  will  relinquish  who  once  used  it" 
(Dalton);  and  "the  ignorance  of  which  brings  with  it  its  own  scorn" 
(Charcot).  Secondly,  and  forever,  as  the  ideal  measure  upon  which 
everything  dreamed  of  by  the  mind,  or  to  be  made  by  the  hand, 
ought  to  find  its  pre-ordained  proportions.  For,  conversely,  it  is 
because  the  present  type-measure  is  not  yet  universally  accepted  and 
the  old  ones  forgotten,  that  we  make  hdxhzxow^  pastiches,  instead  of 
original  work. 

(f )  To  hasten  the  end  of  this  confusion,  the  teachers  ought 
to  devote  more  time  to  the  metric  matters.  These  matters  require 
to  be  taught  to  the  senses  and  to  the  mind.  First  to  the  perceptive 
senses,  by  the  multiplicity  and  unavoidableness  of  the  metric  type 
present  everywhere;  secondly,  to  the  executive  senses^  by  soliciting 
from  the  pupil  frequent  realizations  of  the  metric  proportions  durin^-^ 


160 

his  exercises  and  manual  or  visual  operations  ;  thirdly,  by  calling  the 
mind  to  form  frequent  judgments  as  to  the  dimensions  and  weights 
of  objects  near,  distant,  or  out  of  reach  and  sight ;  that  is,  present 
only  to  the  mind. 

This  form  of  training  is  not  the  intuitive  method — so  much 
talked  of  now ; — it  is  not  the  deductive,  either ; — it  is  the  physiological 
method,  which  calls  into  exercise  alternately,  then  concurrently,  the 
centripetal  and  centrifugal  nerves,  and  controls  their  action  at  their 
static  and  dynamic  pomt  of  concurrence,  execution. 

(g)  Now  it  is  plain  why  I  could  not  go  ahead  with  the 
teaching  of  difnensions  without  having  settled  their  criterion  on  a 
solid  basis,  the  meter.  The  same  remark  obtains  for  the  study  of  the 
proportmis,  which  are  relative  dimensions ;  for  the  direction  of  the 
lines,  which  is  relative  to  the  proportions  of  the  general  plan ;  and 
for  the  generatio7i  and  intersection  of  the  lines,  which  solder  the  de- 
tails into  unity.  By  this  light  I  can  say:  In  order  to  give  precision 
to  these  notions,  it  is  desirable  to  teach  them  not  all  at  once,  but  in 
their  natural  order.  For  instance,  not  to  let  children  mdik^  figures 
composed  of  several  marks,  sticks,  or  straws,  until  they  have  become 
sharp  observers  and  accurate  executors  of  simple  metric  dimensions; 
having  constantly  in  view — must  I  repeat  it  ? — the  prototype  of  all 
dimensions,  proportions,  etc.  I  cannot  enter  into  more  details  with- 
out making  a  treatise,  and  this  is  only  a  survey. — Besides,  these  mat- 
ters will  be  viewed  again  from  another  stand-point. 

(h)  Viewing  it  now  historically,  to  see  the  meter  absorbing  in 
the  unity  of  its  system  all  the  yards  and  ells  and  cubits,  acres, 
bushels,  and  pounds,  with  their  fanciful  divisions  and  mad  discrepan- 
cies, helps  us  to  understand  that  above  all  the  levers  man  possesses 
(hydraulics,  steam,,  electricity,  etc.)  the  greatest  is  his  inner  power  of 
creating  a  law  out  of  the  chaos  of  facts.  We  now  comprehend  what 
we  only  wondered  at  when,  younger,  we  were  told  that  Pythagoras 
had  sacrificed  a  hundred  oxen  to  the  gods  who  had  inspired  him 
with  the  discovery  of  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  hypolhenuse. 

But  how  much  more  worthy  of  sacrifices  is  the  invention  of  a 
system  which  will  soon  make  all  the  computations  figured  and  talked 
of  on  earth  equally  comprehensible  to  its  inhabitants. 

Here  we  leave  the  metre,  but  it  does  not  leave  us.  Mathe- 
matics have  been  pervaded  by  it;  so  that  the  little  we  propose  to 
say  of  their  teaching  will  come  in  this  place  as  a  corollary. 

(i)  Numeration,  being  essentially  objective,  was  at  first  learned 
with  nummi,  calculi,  castaneos,  nuces,  now  with  cherries,  berries, 
small  eatables,  or  playthings,  and  with  the  numeral  frames,  from  that 
of  the  Chinese  to  that  of  the  Yankee.  It  should  have  as  many 
characters  as  it  has  objectS;  but  for  the  conventionality  of  grouping 
the  figures  in  theories  of  unities,  of  multiples,  and  of  fractions. 

The  Roman  numeration,  yet  in  use,  has  seven  characters  and  a 


151  

decimal  theory.  The  metro-decimal  system  has  an  equal  number  of 
characters  and  of  units  in  its  theory,  and  applies  readily  to  any- 
thing ponderable,  measurable,  and  numerable.  The  duodecimal 
system  numerates  by  dozens  and  calculates  by  tens,  a  cacometry 
which  could  be  expunged — but  is  not — by  the  addition  of  two  new 
characters.  This  complement  would  satisfy  the  eye — which  has  so 
much  to  do  in  numeration,  as  well  as  the  mind — which  has  so  much 
to  do  with  calculation. 

( j)  To  calculate  is  not,  however,  a  high  operation  of  the  mind. 
We  know  it,  because  some  idiots  have  surpassed  Academicians  at 
calculating.  One  can  say,  the  savant  calculates  in  view  of  solving 
important  problems,  and  the  idiot  for  no  purpose,  or  for  a  low  one. 
Granted, — but  the  difference  in  their  aim  does  not  make  any  difference 
in  the  calculating  processes  of  the  two;  and  the  idiot  has  dem- 
onstrated by  his  own  success,  and  to  the  dismay  of  the  savant,  that 
counting  is  not  thinking. 

But  if  it  is  not  this,  what  is  it  ?  It  is  a  complex  of  psycho- 
physiological operation,  whose  series,  extremely  important  to  an- 
alyze here,  runs  thus :  Numeration  is  apprehended  by  the  senses, 
calculation  is  comprehended  by  the  mind,  while  counting  is  entrusted 
to  automatism.  The  first  operation  is  one  of  sensory  attention,  the 
second  of  mental  tension  whose  continuity  would  be  unbearable, 
the  third  a  machine  work.  By  the  first,  the  accepted  theory  of 
numeradon,  be  it  tertial,  sepdmal,  decimal,  or  duodecimal,  etc.,  is 
founded  on  the  capacity  of  ])erceiving  so  many  units  as  one  unit ; 
by  the  second,  the  combinations  of  units  included  m  the  adopted 
theory,  as  3  and  3,  4  and  2,  5  and  i.  to  form  the  theory  of  six,  are 
radonally  ascertained  to  be  all  equivalents  of  six  :  and  these  known 
equivalents  are  casts,  like  stereotypes,  to  be  used  in  the  third  opera- 
tion as  blocks, — as  later,  the  casts  of  the  multiplication   table. 

Let  these  elements  of  the  calculus  be  distinctly  taught,  as  they 
distinctly  emerge  from  each  other,  though  from  different  sources  :  a 
cogent  numeration  at  the  base,  and  correct  dies  of  the  pnmary  cal 
culi,  put  at  the  disposition  of  automatism,  which  will  distribute  them 
without  fatigue,  the  mind  surveying  the  results. 

These  are  the  three  distinct  operations  of  counting.  They  have 
to  be  taught  as  distinctly  as  they  are  practiced;  otherwise  the  calcu- 
lator, skillful  or  not,  Avill  either  become  an  automaton,  or — if  he  tries 
to  bring  intelligence  into  his  operations — break  the  machine  by  mix- 
ing the  wheels  with  the  springs,  and  become  insane,  as  is  proved  by 
a  heavy  percentage  of  calculators,  from  Blaise  Pascal  down  to  many 
teachers  and  tyros  of  polytechnic  and  technological  schools. 

(k)  Natural  geometry  (taking  the  word  in  its  limited  sense  of 
study  of  form  in  space)  is  the  object  of  a  desire  which  generally  pre- 
cedes the  ardficial  curiosity  for  the  meaning  of  letters. 

From  their  earliest  days,  children  are  sensible  to  plastic  har- 


152    — 

monies,  avoid  rough  surfaces,  hurting  angles,  as  by  instinct,  by  exper- 
ience; and  soon  differentiate  the  two  primary  gifts  of  Froebel;  not 
so  soon  the  third,  which  is  distinctively  a  gift  of  his  helpers.  They 
recognize  an  horizontal — as  a  straw  floating  on  the  surface  of  water, 
from  a  perpendicular— as  the  leaden  thread  which  intersects  the 
straw.  On  indications  as  this,  given  ordinarily  by  the  children 
themselves,  may  be  commenced  their  course  of  experimental  geom- 
etry. To  build  up  a  body  of  such  knowledge,  they  have  unto  them- 
selves the  human  genius,  in  waitmg  for  peripheric  incitation  and 
material. 

Take  away  these  two  motors — will  the  beaver  build  dikes  when 
he  is  deprived  of  true  lumber  and  boarded  in  a  zoological  palace  ? 
He  will,  by  spells,  gnaw  some  billets,  like  a  stupid  rodent. — Will  not 
the  bee  cease  to  make  honey  when  the  mildness  of  the  climate,  and 
the  continuous  abundance  of  provisions  do  not  incite  her  to  build 
her  stores  and  nurseries,  marvels  of  natural  geometry  ?  It  will  spatter 
an  amorphous,  filthy  treacle. 

That  is  precisely  what  happens  to  our  children  going  to  school 
loaded  with  armfuls  of  books.  Instead  of  which,  put  within  their 
reach,  with  a  hint  and  an  insensible  direction,  levels,  levers,  pulleys, 
squares,  compasses  of  various  sorts,  concrete  numbers,  weights,  and 
measures,  timers,  particularly  metronomes,  to  co-ordinate  their 
voices  and  movements,  and  hour-  glasses  and  alarums  to  awaken  two 
senses  at  once  to  the  importance  of  time's  precision ;  and  children 
will  be  as  busy  as  bees  and  as  tenacious  as  beavers  at  the  task  of 
taking  possession,  by  their  industry,  of  their  stiare  of  the  world. 

Those  instruments  are  the  primaries  of  the  primary  school,  as 
recommended  by  Condorcet,  Talleyrand,  Laplace,  Lavoisier,  Four- 
croy,  Bertholet,  Monge,  in  their  Reports  for  the  best  plans  of  a 
national  school.  These  plans  were  set  aside  by  narrow  reaction- 
aries, they  have  to  be  set  up  again  in  the  school  where  the  people 
will  learn  to  conquer  or  to  keep  his  independence  through  skilled  la- 
bor :  an  attainment  possible  only  through  the  knowledge  of  forms  in 
space,  which  gives  the  power  of  creating  intelligent  forms  in  the 
brute  world;  ^^?nens  agitat  molest 

It  is  on  these  natural  bases  that  Lagout  and  Dalseme  have 
founded  their  series  of  practical  studies  of  forms  "in  space,  from 
which  the  kindergarten  has  borrowed  sb  much,  and  the  primary 
school  so  little  :  the  only  exceptions  which  came  of  late  to  my  per- 
sonal knowledge  being  from  the  Unions  Scolaires  of  France,  from 
the  Ligue  de  V Enseignement  in  Belgium,  and  from  the  Method  of 
Drawing  of  Ottin,  of  Paris. 

However,  the  natural  geometry  considered  as  these  notable 
teachers  have  done,  derives  its  precepts  from  the  experiment,  in- 
stead  of  giving  the  precept  as  an  a  priori  before  experiment.  The 
physiological  training  displaces  farther  the  lesson,  by  carrying  the 


153 

operation  into  the  child ;  a  method  of  education  easy  to  compare 
with  the  two  former,  {a)  By  the  classical  teaching,  the  principle 
is  enunciated;  imposed  like  a  dogma  (see  Legendre)  and  the  sequels 
or  demonstrations  have  to  follow ;  even  facts  are  mutilated  to  fit  that 
Procrustean  bed.  [b)  By  the  object-teaching,  facts  are  the  field  of 
study,  and  the  doctrine  crops  out  of  their  mass. —  But  sometimes 
that  mass  is  made  up  by  a  prejudiced  or  perfidious  hand ;  then  ? .  .  . . 
{c)  By  the /^^j"/<?/(?^/V^/ method,  the  training  proceeds  from  the  in- 
side. The  child  is  neither  ordered  to  believe  or  to  act  in  accord- 
ance to  an  a  priori;  nor  let  loose  in  the  domams  of  objective  exper- 
imentation ;  but  he,  himself,  is,  and  his  functions  are  separating  the 
constant  subjective  of  the  training ;  all  preconceptions  and  all  object- 
ives notwithstanding. 

Thus,  when  we  spoke  of  teaching  the  metre,  for  instance,  we 
did  not  mean  teaching  the  metric  system  for  itself,  but  as  the  instru- 
ment/«r  (?jj;<r(?//<?;/tr<f  with  which  we  mean  to  elevate  the  nervous  func- 
tions of  two  senses  to  the  highest  order  of  their  attainable  capacities. 
In  this  view,  we  held  the  type  measure  before  the  mind  to  judge  and 
conceive,  for  the  hand  to  perceive  and  to  execute  according  to  this 
type,  everything  useful  and  beauiiful. 

We  wanted  from  the  material  metre  its  ideal :  we  found  it  a 
graduated  stick,  and  showed  how  to  make  it  a  living  metre, — that  is 
as  good  an  illustration  as  any,  of  the  power  of  physiological  training. 


154 


CHAPTER  V. 

Education  of  the  Senses. 

74.  In  fact,  we  were  already  engaged  in  this  subject.  For, 
what  is  it  to  appreciate  dimensions,  proportions,  forms,  weights, 
volumes,  distances,  densities,  &c.,  but  the  most  direct  gymnastics 
of  the  senses,  though  indirectly  undertaken,  when  following,  like  a 
stream,  the  current  of  educational  matters  which,  from  the  physio- 
logical point  of  view,  are  all  subordinate  to  the  personal  training  ? 
Then  why  not  continue  to  employ  this  apparently  occasional  form 
of  presenting  the  education  of  the  senses,  instead  of  the  didactic, 
since  it  leaves  more  freedom  for  versatility  in  a  work  naturally  heavy, 
as  well  as  for  noting,  sometimes  explaining,  en  passant  the  sensory 
origin  of  the  progress,  immobility,  and  retrogression  in  education. 

The  education  of  the  senses  is  as  useful  as  that  of  the  mind, 
and  must,  if  anything,  precede  it.  For  what  an  educated  mind  can 
do  without  the  help  of  educated  senses,  is  seen  uselessly  shelved  in 
our  libraries ;  what  the  senses  and  the  hand,  unaided  by  the  culti- 
vated mind,  are  doing,  fills  up  our  stores  of  coarse  products  eagerly 
sought  after ;  and  what  both,  the  educated  senses  and  mind  can 
accomplish  in  concert  is  proudly  exposed  to  view  in  the  Olympic 
rivalries  of  modern  nations. 

By  this  latter  i^rocess,  we  will  spread  parstm  Sind  without  ten- 
sion illustrations  of  (a)  the  kind  of  superiority  of  the  productions 
of  the  epochs  during  which  the  senses  were  developed,  even  to  ex- 
cess ;  (b)  of  the  harmony  of  the  productions  of  the  epochs  during  which 
the  mind  and  the  senses  received  an  almost  parallel  education ;  (c) 
of  the  impossibility  of  using  intellectual  resources,  when  they  are 
not  supported  by  accurate  sensory  preceptions  ;  (d)  of  the  vagaries 
of  the  mind  deprived  of  the  criteria  which  the  senses  furnish ;  (e) 
of  the  rapid  degradation  of  the  creations  of  taste  when  they  are 
reproduced  or  intrepreted  by  unskilled  hands  and  senses ;  (f)  of  the 
progress  accomplished  by  recent  improvements  in  the  modes  of  me- 
diate or  immediate  sensory  perceptions ;  (g)  of  the  progress  expected 
in  art  and  science  from  a  better  training  of  the  senses,  and  from  the 


155  

incessant  addition  to  our  instruments  and  methods  to  give  more  pre- 
cision and  reach  to  the  operations  of  the  senses. 

75.  Education  of  the  Medical  Senses.  The  profession  of  the 
writer  enables  him  to  shov/  from  it,  how  much  the  efficiency  of  our 
intellectual  education  depends  upon  an  equally  thorough  sensorial 
training. — I  premise,  that  the  capacity  most  needed  by  a  physician, 
does  not  come  to  him  so  much  from  the  stores  of  general  knowledge 
and  of  professional  traditions,  as  from  the  r^ady  capability  of  his 
systematically  trained  organs  of  perception  (the  senses),  and  of  exe- 
cution (the  hand). 

a.  The  first  sense  called  into  requisition  in  medical  practice  is 
that  of  smell ;  before  the  door  of  a  patient  il  opened,  this  sense  can 
often  tell  what  is  the  matter  with  him.  It  must  be  educated  by  a 
special  curriculum,  without  the  help  of  the  other  senses  ;  not  only  to 
the  point  of  being  able  to  diagnose  almost  every  disease,  at  least  any 
group  of  diseases,  by  their  specific  odors;  but  to  that  of  reconnoiter- 
ing  when  patients  and  their  surrounders  are  in  dangerous  milieux^ 
affected  with  concealed  passions,  etc. 

b.  The  sense  of  taste  or  gustation  formely  assisted  the  phy- 
sician at  the  bed-side  more  than  it  does  now  in  three  almost  lost 
arts :  one  to  taste  the  identity  or  quality  of  the  drugs  administered 
as  medicines ; — but  since  the  practitioner  has  abdicated  the  dispens- 
ing of  drugs,  his  tasting  capacity,  rarely  put  in  requisition,  is  blunted. 
The  second  lost  art  is  that  of  testing  the  materia  morbi.  Chemistry 
has  almost  entirely  superseded  gustation  of  this  sort  by  analytic- 
tests  ;  however,  we  may  be  called  where  chemicals  can  not  be  ob- 
tained ;  and  moreover  we  must  not  forget  that  the  sense  of  taste  has 
discovered  several  diseases,  diabetes  for  instance,  when  chemistry 
was  ^yet  in  the  limbo  of  alchymy.  Lastly  this  sense  is  called  also  to 
control  the  quality  of  the  foods  and  drinks.  But  even  in  that  appar- 
ently humble  sphere  of  doing  good,  it  must  have  been  submitted  to 
patient  and  varied  experiments,  instead  of  which  it  is  abused  in 
words  and  indulged  in  practice ;  is  called  all  sorts  of  names  in  pub- 
lic, and  privately  spoiled  by  excess  of  alcohol  or  of  sugar ;  one  pro- 
ducing delirium,  the  other  diabetes,  both  ruining  the  delicate  ap- 
preciation of  taste,  whose  name  is  justly  extended  in  all  civilized 
languages  to  the  perception  of  refinement  of  all  sorts. 

c.  The  eye  of  a  physician  must  read  countenances  more  easily 
than  books ;  but  this  reading  has  its  alphabet,  which  he  must  learn 
before  pretending  to  understand  human  expressions  in  health  or  sick- 
ness, passion  or  peril.  The  infinite  modalities  of  life  are  expressed 
by  lines,  contours,  colors,  and  shades.  To  catch  these  modalities 
and  to  seize  their  relations  or  their  antitheses,  is  the  spelling  of  the 
young  physician,  preparatory  to  deciphering  and  naming  diseases 
at  the  bed-side. 

-  (17) 


156  

Is  not  this  book — the  human  countenance — worth  reading  by- 
all,  above  black  marks  on  white  sheets  ?. .  .What  made  some  would- 
be  great  men,  and  some  of  the  incontestably  wonderful  women,  was 
no  other  genius  than  this  now  rare,  but  educable  faculty  which,  if  it 
were  once  cultivated  in  the  school  and  practiced  at  large  in  the 
world,  would  increase  by  heredity  to  the  powers  of  reading  through 
and  through  the  past  impressions  and  of  divining  the  contingent 
emotions.  It  was  thi«  atavic  cumulation  that  Hippocrates  inherited 
from  the  Asclepiades  to  a  degree  which  was  considered  superhuman 
by  good  judges.  It  would  be  for  our  children  like  the  gift  of  a  new 
faculty — so  much  it  has  been  atrophied  by  the  exclusive  study  of  the 
past.  Its  privation  is  equivalent  to  mental  blindness.  The  medical 
student  who  has  not  received  this  primary  education  of  the  senses, 
here  advocated,  is  too  often  incapable  of  reading  what  Our  Master 
calls  the  signs ;  he  can  study  but  can  not  observe  ;  he  knows  so 
much  from  others,  and  learns  so  little  from  himself,  that  his  case  is 
one  of  scholarly  impotence. 

d.  The  hearing  and  the  touch  have  culminated,  for  the  phy- 
sician, m  the  arts  of  auscultation.  However  there  is  no  course  in 
the  ordinary  schools  to  prepare  the  children  to  hear,  and  to  listen  to 
delicate  vibrations ;  nor  sensory  examinations  preliminary  to  admis- 
sion in  medical  colleges ;  so  that  medical  students  know  often  too  late, 
that  they  do  not  possess  the  sense  of  hearing,  even  to  an  ordinary 
degree,  and  will  never  be  able  to  use  it  as  a  clinical  instrument. 

(?.  The  hand  ot  the  physician  is  not  limited  to  the  touch,  nor 
the  touch  to  the  art  of  percussion  and  pulse-feeling.  As  the  general 
agent  of  touch  and  execution  in  the  practice  of  physic,  it  plays  a  part 
more  important  than  that  of  the  other  senses  together.  Indeed, 
Galen  himself — who  appears  to  us  in  the  distance  as  if  he  had  been 
endowed  with  Hippocratic  sight  and  foresight,  but  who  was  certainly 
gifted  with  Apollonian  tactile  delicacy — made  such  loving  study 
of  the  hand  that  his  description  reads  like  a  poem ;  it  is  almost  an 
apotheosis.  In  this  mighty  effort,  he  does  not  hesitate  to  give  to  the 
tactus  eruditus  the  precedence,  if  not  the  priority,  over  the  mens 
eruditus.  With  him  we  revindicate  the  priority  of  the  training  of  the 
hand  in  medical  schools,  over  the  study  of  our  art  in  books ;  and 
more,  we  say :  From  first  to  last,  let  us  educate  the  hand ;  and  once 
educated,  let  us  keep  it  up  to  the  highest  point  of  sensitive  and  execu- 
tive capacity. 

/.  On  revising  these  pages,  I  am  forcibly  reminded  of  having 
seen  Virchow  lecture  on  "Medical  Education"  at  the  last  meeting 
of  the  International  Medical  Congress  of  Amsterdam.  To  one  not 
familiar  with  the  German,  withal  lost  in  the  crowd  of  competent  ad- 
mirers, the  great  Berliner  seemed  to  say  :  "The  science  of  medicine 
is  in  a  state  of  transition;  great  changes  are  going  on  for  which 
medical  students  must  be  prepared.     The  questions  of  the  present 


157  

moment  are  not  those  of  yesterday.  The  interest  is  displaced  ;  lately 
concentrated  on  nosology  and  doses,  it  is  now  intensified  on  the  best 
means  of  observing  accurately  and  of  recording  mathematically. 
In  other  words,  thcr^  is  to  day  less  distance  between  the  men 
of  small  and  the  men  of  big  doses,  so  called,  than  between  the  prac- 
titioners who  register  in  figures  the  signs  which  they  perceive  with 
their  natural  or  artificial  senses ;  and  those  who  render  no  account, 
either  to  themselves  or  to  society  of  the  living  capital  intrusted  to 
their  infallibility. 

*'In  consequence  of  this  displacement  of  public  opinion,  the 
clinic  taxes  the  senses  for  more  and  more  perspicuity,  and  when  this 
perspicuity  fails  to  discover  the  signs^  new  instruments  are  invented 
to  extend  or  supplement  the  diagnostic  power  of  the  senses.  Here 
is  the  medical  desideratum :  possibly  less  erudition,  surely  a  more 
skilled  use  of  the  senses  and  of  the  instruments  and  methods  of  posi- 
tive observation. 

"There  have  been  generations  of  students  studying  in  the  dark, 
imposed  upon,  and  taught  to  impose  in  their  turn.  Not  so  with 
you,  our  juniors.  No  road  has  been  so  clearly  traced  as  yours. 
The  science  of  medicine  aims  at  a  rank  among  the  exact  sciences, 
you  have  it  in  your  power  to  elevate  it  to  that  height,  and  yourselves 
with  her,  by  doing  strictly  exact  work  in  practice  and  by  recording 
your  cases  mathematically.  To  that  effect,  sharpen  your  instruments 
of  precision,  viz  :  train  your  senses  to  the  highest  point  of  sensibility  ; 
drill  your  fingers  and  eyes  to  the  use  of  the  instruments  which 
extend  the  operations  of  the  senses  far  above  their  natural  limits ; 
record  graphically  or  numerically  the  data  furnished  by  this  double 
set  of  instruments  of  observation  ;  and  learn  how  to  read — that  is 
to  interpret  the  signs,  and  the  series  of  signs  of  the  great  functions : 
signs  whose  mathematical  fluctuations  represent  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  life  through  the  contrary  currents  of  the  disease  and  of  the 
medication. 

"Some  contend  that  a  preliminary  qualification  to  become  a 
medical  student  must  be  a  knowledge  of  Latin,  Greek,  Algebra,  and 
what  not  ?. . .  But  I  say,  let  him  know  all  'hat — and  more — or  less ; 
but  make  sure  that  his  senses — if  possible,  trained  from  infancy — are 
capable  of  furnishing  to  the  mind  the  data  of  a  medical  verdict :  a 
medical  mind  can  be  solidly  seated  only  among  sound  medical  senses. 

"Therefore,  not  only  the  primary  school  is  at  fault,  but  the 
medical  schools  are  culpable  for  spending  in  recitations  and  lectures 
the  time  which  ought  to  be  given  to  the  training  of  the  sensts.  "I 
saw  these  ideas  light  up  the  face  of  Virchow  when  he  was  speaking 
of  the  future  of  our  profession  ;  he  must  have  said  something  to 
that  effect,  only  more  pointed  and  harmonious." 

76.  Education  of  the  Industrial  Senses.  When  interro- 
gated, the  representatives  of  industry  will  bring  forth  the  same  testi- 


158  

mony  as  the  men  of  science  :  The  school  does  not  improve  the 
working  capacity  of  the  scholar,  which  is  the  foundation  of  the  in- 
dependence of  men,  of  the  security,  moral  education  and  thrift 
of  society. 

These  working  capacities  have  for  instruments  the  industrial 
senses  properly  educated.  But  I  can  not  omit  here  the  fulcrum  on 
which  these  instruments  rest  in  their  operations,  I  mean,  the  sense 
of  duty  toward  self  and  others.  Unfortunately  this  sense  has  been 
tortured  steadily,  from  the  first  historical  .  record,  by  a  pre-historic 
legend  which  did  more  harm  than  all  the  blood  shed  of  heroes. 
1  mean  the  representation  of  Adam  and  Eve  as  being  born  gentle- 
man and  gentlewoman  of  leisure,  who  tried  to  learn  better,  and 
were  sent  to  work  as  a  punishment.  Whereas,  if  there  is  some  truth 
in  the  legend,  it  must  be  reversed  and  read,  as  did  read  it  a  man 
whose  prophecies  have  been  reahzed  by  the  score ;  "The  paradise 
is  not  behind,  it  is  before  us."  A  reward  for  the  work,  and  a  result 
of  the  working  capacities  of  the  millions, — their  stimulus,  not  their 
doom. 

A  fact  culminates  in  our  industrial  and  industrious  society,  it  is 
the  substitution  of  the  machine  to  the  hand.  This  substitution  does 
not  portend  that  soon  man  will  not  need  to  work;  on  the  contrary, 
it  means  that  he  will  have  to  work  more  than  ever,  because  machines, 
making  more  and  cheaper  objects  of  comsumption,  render  these 
more  generally  desired ;  and  in  order  to  obtain  them  he  must  pro- 
duce, if  not  more,  better  than  the  machine.  But  he  can  do  better 
than  the  automatism  of  metals,  only  by  ceasing  to  be  himself  an 
automaton,  and  by  working  with  superiorly  educated  senses  aided 
by  a  superiorly  educated  mind.  Such  are  the  signs  of  the  times, 
and  the  necessities  of  the  school. 

The  working  capacities  to  be  trained  from  infancy,  and  more 
technically  at  school  are  :  i — The  senses  to  perceive.  2 — The  mind 
to  receive,  store  and  evoke  ideals.  3 — The  hand  to  execute  a  con- 
cept (an  idea  well  conceived)  4 — The  handling  and  maneuvering 
of  the  instruments  which  extend  and  enlarge  the  operations  of  the 
hand  and  of  the  senses.  5 — The  co-ordination,  and  alternate  sub- 
ordination of  the  senses  in  the  acts  of  perception  and  execution. 
This  perfection  of  the  working  capacities  is  demanded  in  almost  any 
kind  of  werk ;  and  industry,  being  now  so  multiform,  demands  more 
versatility  of  sensory  aptitudes,  and  more  physical  knowledge  than 
are  found  in  what  is  called  the  educated  classes. 

Indeed  this  new  economic  arrangement  has  made  the  condition 
of  the  working  classes  inferior  or  superior  to  what  it  was.  Inferior, 
for  those  who  are  attached  to  the  machinery  as  so  many  wheels,  with- 
out the  intelligence  of  the  machine,  worse  than  the  serfs  of  the 
glebe,  at  any  rate,  with  less  hope  and  vital  air.  Superior,  for  those 
who  have  learned  to  comprehend  and  rule  the  machine,  or  who  can 


159  

enhance  its  products  by  the  plus-value  of  their  hand  dexterity  and 
sense  culture;  an  alternative  which  shows  the  cruelty  of  turning 
adrift  as  educated,  children  who  have  received  a  would-be  intellect- 
ual education,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  practical  training  of  the  senses, 
which  could  keep  them  up,  above  the  pressure  of  the  instruments 
of  modern  slavery. 

The  first  desideratum,  in  my  opinion,  is  to  prepare  the  senses 
for  the  creation  of  mdustrial  types — the  second  for  the  conservation 
of  the  purity  of  these  types,  {a)  If  the  former,  the  creation  of  types 
does  not  appear  to  be  m  great  demand  for  each  industry,  there  are 
so  many  kinds  of  industries,  that  their  totality  calls  hourly  for  a  lar- 
ger supply  of  origmal  inventions,  or  new  combinations  of  lines, 
colors,  mechanisms,  etc.  without  forgetting  the  demand  for  new 
types  created  by  the  rapid  alteration  of  the  latest  during  their  un- 
skilled and  automatic  reproduction. 

d.  This  alteration  would  not  be  so  rapid  if  there  were  in  the 
school  anything  like  a  training  for  the  conservation  of  the  ideals,  ma- 
terialized in  their  original  type.  There  is  nothing  like  it  in  primary 
instruction ;  only  approximations  by  Professor  Suys,  of  the  Ecole 
Modele  of  Brussels,  Rieber  and  Ottin  of  the  public  schools  of  Paris. 

c.  The  problem  is  neuro-muscular.  In  the  education  of  "the 
industrial  senses  an  important  part  is  assigned  to  the  muscular  sense, 
which  sense,  composed  partly  of  tactile  feeiing,  and  pardy  of  con- 
traction, leaves  on  matter  the  imprint  of  the  idea  by  which  it  was 
prompted. 

This  sense  was  unconciously  educated  at  play  when  children 
were  allowed  that  luxury  in  schools.  To  it  are  due  much  of  our 
happiness,  and  almost  all  the  material  realizations  of  our  ideas. — 
In  its  superior  training  we  must  look  for  the  elevation  of  the  work- 
ing man  above  the  machine ;  but  first  let  us  understand  it. 

ct.  It  is  an  aggressive  sense  which,  properly  trained,  knows  in- 
tuitively how  much  of  power,  or  synergy,  it  will  need  to  make  mat- 
ter speak.  The  exercise  of  this  complex  function  during  skilled 
labor,  requires  a  number  and  a  variety  of  combinations  of  the  tactile 
feeling  and  of  the  fiber-contractions  truly  appalling  for  the  mind 
merely  to  think  of,  and  which  would  certainly  craze  it,  if  it  had  to 
command  them  all  after  reflection.  Happily,  like  the  operations 
of  counting,  the  operations  of  the  muscular  sense,  once  conceived 
and  tried  with  due  mental  attention,  may  be  entrusted  to  automat- 
ism, a  function  as  unerring  as  it  is  unimprovable,  when  it  has  once 
made  up  its  casts,  as  we  have  seen  m  counting.  Therefore  it  is 
of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  two  elements  of  this  power,  the 
muscular  sense,  be  trained  separately  and  together. 

e.  At  the  bottom  of  the  success  in  all  the  arts,  and  of  all  artisans 
is  the  precision  of  touch — be  it  the  touch  of  the  sense  of  touch,  of 
sight,  hearing,  smell  or  taste  (which  are  but  modified  tacts  or  con- 


160 

tacts).  These  are  guides  to  our  natural  or  mechanical  instruments 
of  execution.  Since  the  muscles  of  the  life  of  relation  obey  the 
nervous  impulses,  results  of  impressions  either  act  ml  or  previously 
recorded,  the  richer  the  store  of  sensory  impressions,  the  more  true 
and  effective  will  be  the  work  done  by  the  skillful  play  of  the  mus- 
cular contractions. 

In  this  view,  the  cultivation  of  precise  sensations — in  regard  to 
the  properties  of  the  most  varied  substances  which  modern  industry 
can  submit  to  its  arts,  crafts,  and  manual  operations — is  certainly 
the  most  useful  course  which  a  child  could  follow  at  school,  and 
can  never  get  too  soon. 

To  give  him  that  experimental  knowledge,  courses  must  be  in- 
stituted of  perceptions  gradually  more  delicate,  either  bi-  or  mono- 
sensorial.  In  these  courses,  a  child  would  soon  be  known  as  quali- 
fied or  incompetent  for  certain  kinds  of  work.  But  the  chief  benefit 
of  this  training  would  be  to  give  an  almost  infallible  guide  to  the 
muscular  force,  when,  in  the  process  of  acting  on  matter,  in  order  to 
endow  it,  with  the  meaning  of  that  tact^  which,  touching  it,  has 
called  it  into  life  and  rendered  it  fit  for  use. 

/  But  in  that  touch  there  is  more  than  a  sensitive7(^<:/,  there  is 
also  a  force  prompted  by  a  muscular  lever. 

Gymnastics  and  sports  are  instituted  to  develop  this  power ; 
many  schools  have  them ;  all  should  have  a  gymnasium,  the  best 
being  the  simplest,  in  the  open  air,  weather  permitting ;  but  strange 
enough,  hardly  any  one  suspects  its  raison  d'etre.  To  grow  immense 
packs  of  muscles  ? — No ;  but  to  develop  parts  of  the  body  weakened 
or  ill-nourished,  to  harmonize  several  organic  and  all  the  motor  and 
vocal  functions,  to  put  the  essential  apparatus,  as  lungs,  heart,  skin, 
in  working  order,  and  to  discipline  every  muscle  of  the  life  of  rela- 
tion to  obey  the  dictates  of  the  intellect  from  the  brain,  of  the  will 
from  the  sympathetic  and  spinal  cord. — This  should  supercede  the 
gymnastics,  boating,  racing  &c.,  instituted  to  make  muscle  for  the 
sake  of  muscle,  producing  clowns — amusing  enough  ; — colossi — 
achronological  pachiderms,  extinct  knighthoods,  which  can  not 
show  on  their  blazon  one  noble  though  comical  Don  Quixote,  for 
a  hundred  greasy  Sancho  Panzas.  The  gymnastics  we  favor  and 
demand,  is  that  whicVi  calls  into  useful  activity  the  muscles  con- 
trolled by  the  sentient  and  motor  nerves,  every  lever  which  can  be 
commanded  by  a  refined  intellect.  This  training  to  be  done  from 
the  periphery  to  the  center,  from  the  center  to  the  periphery,  be  it 
imitative  or  willed ;  to  develop  the  primary  elements  of  intentional 
personal  activity  and  of  objective  agressivity,  giving  a  meaning  to 
every  muscular  contraction,  and  adding  to  the  spirit  of  blood  itself, 
by  the  rise  of  its  temperature  during  the  friction  of  the  fibers. 

g.  This  co-gymnastics  of  the  senses  and  of  the  muscles  settles  a 
vexed  question.    Rousseau  saw  well  that  every  man  must  work  with 


^»v 


161 

his  body  as  well  as  with  his  brain — for  the  sake  of  duty  and  of 
health.  Accordingly,  Madame  de  Genlis  made  her  royal  pupils  learn 
each  one  a  trade ;  likewise  every  educator  looks  for  the  means  of 
inserting  manual  labor  in  intellectual  education,  at  the  same  time 
that  the  princes  of  labor  allow  their  young  laborers  a  time  to  learn 
from  books,  expecting  in  return  more  intelligence  at  the  loom  or  m 
the  workshop.  Thus  the  extremes  meet  on  that  common  ground 
of  improvement.  But  then  they  diverge  mstantly  m  this  wise : 
That  some  say  children  must  work  when  studymg,  and  others  that 
they  must  study  when  working — positions  of  which  the  philosophy 
cannot  be  impugned,  as  long  as  it  rests  on  social  necessities — both 
parties,  however,  forgetting  equally  the  previous  question  of  training 
the  senses  before  educating  the  mmd. 

h.  I  have  been  at  some  pains  to  see  with  my  own  eyes,  not  only 
what  comparative  international  exhibitions  show  at  their  best,  but 
the  every  day  realities  of  the  schools  directly  issued  from  Rousseau's 
theory  at  Lamartiniere's,  Gerard's,  and  those  created  by  secondary 
thoughts  of  the  same  order  at  Lancaster,  Chalons,  Paris,  Brussels, 
Havre,  Dublin,  and  more  in  this  country.  In  every  one — and  all, 
I  have  seen  a  great  deal  of  good  done  in  the  superstructure,  but  this 
failing  at  the  base  :  no  physiological  foundations,  which  ought  to  be 
partly  laid  by  the  training  of  the  nses,  previous  to  the  education 
of  the  mind,  and  especially  by  that  of  the  muscular  sense,  the  lever  of 
the  executive  creations  of  the  will.  To  express  the  same  criticism 
in  a  psychological  form,  I  would  say  that  in  those  schools  they  em- 
ploy the  "capacities"  of  the  child  to  do  some  specified  work;  tak- 
ing for  granted  that  capacities  are  increased  by  usage,  according  to 
the  proverb:  c''est  en  forgeant  qu'on  devient  forger  07i;  but  that  they 
do  not  train  his  physiological  "capabilities"  to  their  point  of  adapt- 
ability to  any  of  the  tasks  which  may  befall  him  in  our  versatile  so- 
ciety, from  painting  a  passing  humming-bird  tocrushing  or  smelting 
auriferous  quartz. 

/.  This  absence  of  primary  education  of  the  working  capacities 
is  much  more  disastrous  in  our  laborious  society  than  in  any  of  the 
previous  ones.  It  retards  the  progress  of  all  the  arts,  leaves  at  the 
helm  men  of  heterogeneous  education,  tricksters,  unfit  for  the  leader- 
ship of  busy  nations,  and  throws  hourly  to  waste  immense  quantities 
of  ill- worked  material.  A  word  on  this  last  score  can  not  be  avoided 
when  giving  a  last  look  at  the  training  of  the  industrial  senses. 

Almost  all  the  handicrafts  furnish  examples  of  the  losses  in- 
flicted by  the  lack  of  training  of  the  senses  and  hands.  The  name 
hands ^  given  to  the  masses  set  to  work  with  native  automatism  only, 
and  without  a  preparatory  education  of  their  executive  senses,  is 
perfectly  characteristic  of  the  severance  of  their  hands  from  the 
higher  faculties — a  mutilation  for  which  they  abundantly  revenge 
themselves  by  the  infliction  of  moral  and  financial  evils.     Let  us 


16S    

illustrate  these  evils  by  the  most  apparent  of  their  consequences, 
the  rapid  alteration  of  types  by  the  masses  who  are  engaged  in  their 
reproductions  without  having  received  a  preliminary  training  of  their 
organs  of  execution. 

New  types,  called  fashions,  are  constantly  created  in  architec- 
ture, painting,  dressing,  furniture  making,  etc.  Let  us  refer  to  that 
which  employs  the  greatest  number  of  hands,  and  mostly  women. 
The  fashion  in  all  the  articles  of  dress  changes  so  often  that  it  is 
demoralizing  for  many,  and  ruinous  for  more.  Women  have  been 
reproached  for  this,  as  we  think,  with  great  injustice ;  at  least  it  can 
not  be  denied  that,  in  the  time  when  fashions  were  executed  by  true 
artists,  they  were  transmitted  almost  without  alteration  from  mother 
to  daughter  at  least,  and  that  even  now,  the  true  Parisian  of  taste 
and  education  changes  her  style  of  dress  less  and  more  rarely  than 
any  other  woman,  because  those  who  reproduce  fashions  there  re- 
main truer  to  the  type.  The  cause  of  the  revolutions  which  we  see 
in  dress  resides  in  this  :  When  a  new  type  comes  out,  with  forms 
and  colors,  combinations  of  both,  and  a  fitness  to  the  human  form 
truly  lovely,  everybody  wants  it.  When  it  has  been  executed — let 
us  say  for  the  correctness  of  the  idea,  translated — a  few  hundred 
times,  it  has  lost  what  the  French  call  'V<?  je  ne  sais  quoi,''  which 
causes  one  to  dream  of  it.  The  third  month  everybody  has  it ; 
the  fourth,  everybody  wants  to  get  rid  of  it,  and  to  have  the  new 
one,  not  yet  well  started ;  and  why  ?  Because  the  translation  from 
copy  to  copy  by  automatic  and  non-educated  hands  has  become 
too  unpkasing  to  contemplate.  So  the  work  of  millions  of  people 
and  the  fruitless  expenditure  of  millions  of  money — without  reckon- 
ing the  greater  cost  of  an  almost  incurable  demorahzation — result 
from  a  schooling  which  leaves  out  of  the  mental  curriculum  the 
senses,  the  feeders  of  the  mind,  and  the  hand,  the  realizer  of  its 
flitting  shadows. 

By  these  examples,  taken  from  common  human  affairs,  we  see 
that  the  hand  alone  can  give  precision  and  durability  to  the  simplest 
ideas.  The  same  truth  becomes  more  evident  in  the  higher  ways 
of  intellect.  Who  made  the  great  discoveries  of  our  age  ?  Fulton, 
Faraday,  Daguerre,  Morse,  Wells — men  whose  hands  had  from 
infancy  executed  the  ideas  of  the  mind.  When  the  mind  is  active 
and  the  hand  inapt,  ideas  run  to  waste,  by  a  mental  process  we 
may  call  ideorrhea — not  a  rare  disease.  But  when  the  hand  is  able  to 
give  a  body  to  the  ideal,  which  has  been  flitting  behind  the  skull,  like 
a  ghost  along  the  Styx,  the  invention  stands  in  substance  before  a 
benefitted  and  admiring  world.*    Therefore  let  us  educate  the  hand. 

77.  Education  of  the  Hand.  The  hand — of  which  so 
much  is  expected  as  the  executive  officer  of  the  will  and  of  the 
mind,  by  force  or  delicacy — receives  only  the  chance  training 
of  automatism. 


163  

a.  It  is  unfortunately  the  fact  that  it  has  for  years  and  ages 
struggled  against  matter  to  make  it  express  or  accomplish  ideas,  re- 
ceiving all  the  while  the  least  possible  help  from  the  mind.  But  the 
great  progress  of  hand-work  at  the  Welt-Ausstellung,  at  the 
exhibition  of  Philadelphia  1876  and  Paris  1878,  over  the  preceding 
exhibits  at  Paris  and  London,  and  the  drawing  of  the  French, 
German,  Italian,  and  Swiss  schools,  show  that  the  hand  is  more  and 
more  educated  intellectually,  if  not  yet  physiologically.  The 
object-lessons  have  largely  influenced  the  advent  of  the  realistic 
taste  now  prevalent  in  art  and  industry ;  but  when  the  physiological 
education — of  which  these  lessons  are  only  an  inverted  and  partial 
application — shall  prevail  in  the  schools — then  the  hand  will  rule, 
and  the  question  will  arise,  the  hand  of  which  nation  will  be  queen  ? 
Why  should  it  not  be  that  of  America  ? 

b.  There  is  something  in  chiromancy.  As  the  aspect  of  the 
head  bespeaks  mental  power,  so  the  hand  indicates  its  creative 
capacity.  Like  the  head,  the  hand  is  amenable  to  greater  perfection 
of  shape ;  hence  to  untold  dexterities.  If  we  judge  of  the  American 
hand  by  the  promise  of  its  forms, — long  without  puny  tapering,  its 
palm  large  enough  for  a  strong  clasp,  its  phalanges  well  defined, 
without  articular  nodosities,  the  nails  well  made,  supporting  a  pulp 
equally  sensitive,  firm,  and  elastic, — such  a  hand,  well  trained,  must 
become  a  match  for  the  most  skillful.  Here,  coarse  hands  are 
of  foreign  origin,  made  clumsy  by  hereditary  overwork,  and  can,  by 
culture,  be  brought  to  an  average  of  dignity  and  usefulness,  at  the 
latest  in  the  second  generation.  But  the  correction,  by  education, 
of  the  anomalies  of  form,  of  contractility  and  of  tactility — of  the 
hand,  forms  a  special  department  of  education. 

c.  In  its  general  application,  the  education  of  the  hand  aims  at 
exercising  the  muscular  and  nervous  apparatus  separately  and  con- 
jointly ;  making  the  hand  obey  an  outside  will  or  example,  or  the 
internal  will  or  thought ;  executing  either  of  these  dictates  in  the 
shortest  time,  in  rational  order,  with  the  greatest  correctness,  force, 
delicacy,  and,  finally,  art;  habituating  the  hand  to  convert  all  labors 
of  repetition  from  intellectual  to  automatic,  without  losing  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  former ;  working  alternately  under  the  dictates 
of  the  will  and  under  the  impulses  of  automatism,  without  ever 
mixing  the  former,  in  which  the  hand  is  obedient  t-  >  the  brain,  with 
the  latter,  whose  repetitive  impulse  is  from  a  near  ganglion  when  the 
mind  takes  rest.  These  exercises  must  be  made  singly,  in  small 
groups,  l^y  large  assemblages,  on  command,  on  imitation  of  a  person 
or  ot  objects.  Education  trains  the  sight  as  well  as  the  hand  to 
wonderful  quickness  and  precision,  and  prepares  these  organs  for 
higher  labors. 

d.  Both  hands   must  be  equally  trained,  the  right  and  the  left 

(18) 


—    164 

separately,  alternately,  and  together,  and  must  be  made  to  execute 
movements  of  totality,  or  of  their  small  phalanges  singly  or  together, 
by  the  most  rapid  and  correct  simultaneity  of  the  will,  the  eye, 
and  the  hand. 

Moreover,  when  some  mequality  is  discovered,  not  only  in  the 
ability  of  the  two  hands,  but  in  the  growth  and  action  of  both  sides 
at  large,  two  orders  of  correctives  must  be  ready  in  the  school  for 
application,  one  to  the  child  directly  and  personally,  the  other,  re- 
sulting from  some  pre -arrangements  in  the  school.  By  the  first,  as 
soon  as  a  difference  of  size  or  symmetry  is  manifested,  the  dexter 
habits  of  the  pupil  must  be  altered  into  sinister.  Eating,  cutting, 
brushing,  and  the  menial  services  which  the  hand  performs  as  a 
domestic  of  the  body,  must  be  intrusted  to  the  left,  even  drawing, 
writing,  and  a  few  automatic  games  and  exercises,  like  spading, 
sawing,  at  the  same  time  that  the  lacing,  buckling,  buttoning  of  the 
garments  must  be  altered  to  be  vvorked  by  that  hand.  By  the 
second  and  more  general  device,  it  would  be  well  to  have  the  school- 
arrangements,  as  the  doors  and  windows,  altered  and  disposed  to 
be  moved  by  left-handling,  so  that  not  only  the  children  deformed 
by  prior  right-handling  would  improve,  but  so  that  new  cases  of  this 
deformity  would  become  as  rare  as  they  now  are  frequent.  So  this 
physiological  training  of  the  hand  and  of  the  left  side  is  urged  on  the 
grounds  of  necessity  in  favor  not  of  a  few  children,  but  of  all,  on 
the  plea  of  the  dualistic  structure  of  the  human  body,  as  developed 
in  Part  1. 

In  educating  the  hand  as  the  executive  officer  of  the  will,  one 
soon  finds  that  it  is  also  the  surest  carrier  of  the  impressions  pro- 
duced by  contact ;  that  is,  of  the  general  sense  of  touch,  and 
of  the  special  sense  of  tact — carriers  of  so  many  comforts  and  so 
much  happiness.  These,  like  the  other  senses,  are  susceptible 
of  education,  and  were  educated  by  the  ancients,  as  it  appears  from 
the  expressions,  ^^tactus  erudituSy^  ^^eruditus  oculus,'"  ^'■eruditum 
palatum."" 

78. — Education  of  the  Eye.  a.  The  education  of  the 
hand  is  but  the  introduction  to  that  of  the  other  senses,  as  we  have 
seen  its  natural  exercise  take  the  precedence  in  the  new  born.  It 
served  us  to  illustrate  the  preliminary  wants  of  an  industrial  educa- 
tion, and  now  we  will  take  from  the  eye  our  illustrations  of  the  phys- 
iological development  of  the  sense  of  "the  beautiful" — not  because 
the  other  senses  are  not  concerned  m  it,  but  for  the  sake  of  shortness 
and  pointedness. 

b.  Volumes  have  been  written  on  "the  beautiful"  since  Longin, 
himself  a  great  compiler,  and  none  have  pointed  out  its  physiological 
origin.  As  the  sense  of  the  "tangible  beautiful"  has  been  in  man 
since  he  exercised  an  ebb  and  flow  pressure  on  the  finest  curves  in 
the  world,  so  the   sense  of  the  "visible  beautiful"  entered  the  mind, 


166  

circumscribed  by  the   form  of  the  eye,  or  led   by  its  sympathetic 
movements. 

c.  It  is  a  cultivated,  but  natural  sense,  nevertheless;  since  it 
rests  upon  our  organism  and  its  functions  as  follows :  Nothing,  ever 
so  fine  in  its  color  and  details,  leaves  an  impression  of  beauly,  unless 
it  fills  the  chamber  of  the  eye  harmoniously,  or  attracts  the  eye  in 
a  series  of  plans ;  the  former,  and  by  far  the  more  frequent,  repre- 
senting repose;  the  other,  movement. 

d.  To  illustrate  these  feelings,  the  impressions  of  a  child  may 
be  more  forcible  than  my  reasonings,  so  that  I  remember,  in  point, 
that,  a  few  days  ago,  my  grand-son,  Edward,  after  having  been  suc- 
cessively interested,  in  a  gallery,  with  the  pictures  of  cows,  ships, 
landscapes,  etc.,  remained,  till  taken  away,  before  an  engraving  of  the 
Mariage  de  Marie  et  Joseph.  It  could  not  have  been  the  religious 
interest,  since  the  little  fellow  is  hardly  three  years  old ;  it  was  be- 
cause the  distribution  of  the  figures,  from  the  high  priest  and  temple 
to  the  accessories,  is  composed  of  lines  so  convergent  and  harmon- 
ious that  they  fill  the  fundus  of  the  organ  of  vision,  so  as  not  to 
permit  the  look  to  divert  from  this  truly  pre-raphaelic  creation  of  Ra- 
phael. Let  us  admit  that  this  wonderful  ideal  could  have  passed  be- 
for-  his  eye  (like  an  object  passes  before  a  looking-glass),  without 
entering  as  an  image,  nor  remaining  as  an  idea,  had  not  the  child 
been  used,  from  the  end  of  his  first  year,  to  look  at,  and  to  point  out 
pictures,  and  even  to  attach  ideas  to  portraits,  etc. 

Such  is  the  organic  and  trained  origin  of  the  most  ideal  of  our 
enjoyments.  Let  us  draw  also  from  this  familiar  illustration  an  ex- 
ceedingly important  truth,  which  is  that,  in  the  "beaux  arts,"  as  well 
as  in  the  "mdustrial  arts,"  the  feelings  must  be  homologous  between 
the  centre  and  the  periphery,  the  artist  who  creates,  and  the  public 
who  appreciates ;  therefore,  that  it  is  not  enough  to  have  educated 
Vinci,  Poussin,  Mieris,  Van  Dyke,  but  the  people  also  must  be  edu- 
cated in  the  art  of  receiving  the  art  impressions  as  the  Athenians, — 
not  only,  like  the  Athenians,  for  enjoyment,  but  for  the  transferrence 
of  the  sense  of  the  "beautiful"  to  all  the  productions  and  surround- 
ings of  fife. 

e.  Another  condition  of  the  beautiful  is  conformity  to  certain 
proportions  which  give  the  style.  To  attain  this,  rules  have  been 
set  down  at  the  end  of  fruitful  periods,  as  by  Vitruvius  when  the 
Greek  art  became  Romanized ;  by  Titian,  and  later  by  Raphael  Mengs, 
and  Winkelmann,  when  the  Renaissance  was  producing  its  last 
models.  From  their  doctrines  and  judgments,  it  appears  that,  be- 
hind all  the  art-creations — from  a  .simple  crayon  to  a  sculptured  figure, 
or  a  pile  Hke  the  Parthenon,  the  cathedral  of  Cologne  or  that  of  Veze- 
ley,  there  are — besides  and  further  behind  the  concept  — pre-conceived 
proportions  which  constitute  the  style  of  the  oeuvre. 

These  proportions  are  the  result  of  the  relations  of  the  parts  to 


166 

a  type,  "the  accepted  beautiful."  At  some  times"and  places,  these 
proportions  were  so  many  diameters  or  heads  to  the  height ;  one- 
seventh  was  a  low  type,  one-eleventh  was  the  most  elegant — rather 
slim.  Each  style  had  its  partisans,  also  each  had  its  destination. 
A  temple  to  Neptune  could  not  be  supported  by  a  light  Corynthian 
order.  Trianon  was  less  severe  than  Versailles,  more  so  than  the 
Dresden  cour  d^honneur,  etc.  The  statues  of  Jean  Goujon  were 
taller  than  Bouchardon's,  the  Coustous  and  the  Coisevox  as  svelte 
as  Vemtians,  etc. 

Every  one  his  style,  that  is  his  comprehension  of  the  propor- 
tions of  the  parts  with  the  whole.  But  this  comprehension,  not  only 
by  the  artist,  but  by  the  whole  world  for  his  judge,  depended  on  the 
acceptance  of  a  common  type-measure,  whose  divisions  served  as 
rule  or  criterium  of  beauty.  These  art  periods  had  their  metre  ; 
and  what  we  admire  in  their  productions,  is  their  fidelity  to  their 
type  or  metre. — I  was  sure  the  metre  would  overtake  us  again;  now 
is  the  time  for  our  own  metre  to  be  the  standard  measure,  not  only 
of  all  objects  of  art  and  monuments,  but  of  all  that  which  we  make 
with  our  hand  and  matter ;  from  a  statue  to  a  wooden  shoe.  All  work 
is  judged  by  that  standard,  the  propordon  of  the  parts  to  its  type- 
measure  of  beauty. 

f.  Not  only  I  acknowledge,  but  I  am  glad  to  acknowledge, 
that  the  perusal  of  the  master  pieces  is  not  necessary — though  it 
helps — to  form  the  test  which  every  one  must  possess,  if  not  as  a  pro- 
ductive, as  a  recipient  artist.  In  the  absence  of  a  Bouquet  Monte 
by  Van  Spaendonck,  a  handful  of  wild  flowers  will  do ;  without  a 
Terburgh,  the  museum  of  the  street-cars  is  an  open  port  folio.  I 
bear  this  testimony  the  more  earnestly,  since  the  lameness  of  lan- 
guage to  follow  ideas,  causes  me  to  separate  the  industrial  from  the 
fine  arts,  instead  of  uniting  both  (as  I  wished  to  do)  with  the  most 
sacred,  the  home  art,  which  is  to  the  art  universal,  what  the  Lares 
were  to  an  abstract  Deity. 

g.  In  view  of  the  soothing  and  extensive  influence  of  this 
home  art,  it  is  good  to  teach  it  early ;  not  to  let  children  imagine 
that  all  the  art  is  in  galleries,  framed,  or  under  glass,  even  in  the 
atelier,  but  to  make  them  feel  it  at  home,  and  realize  it  in  themselves, 
since  every  woman,  child,  or  man  is  at  liberty  to  treat  himself  as  an 
object  of  art ;  that  is,  to  make  one's  self  harmonious  in  dress,  man- 
ners, voice,  to  the  home  gradually  peopled  with  Penates,  or  sou- 
venirs of  the  successive  ages  of  the  family.  By  choice  or  by  time, 
these  surroundings  harmonize  with  the  old  folks,  and  the  young  ones 
harmonize  with  the  whole,  to  make  a  living  tableau,  which  may  at- 
tain to  the  dignity  of  a  Valasquez.  Of  all  the  arts,  let  us  cultivate, 
by  preference,  the  living  ones,  which  can  set  us,  ourselves,  up  as 
models.     At  any  rate,  if  the  home  is  not  a  humbug, — and  if  it  is, 

It  soon  shows  itself  to  be  so, — the  home  art,  unconscious  of  itself,  soon 


167  

arranges  its  materials  so  that  it  represents  the  innermost  mind  which 
cogitates  in  their  midst.  But  let  the  arrangement  be  conscious,  ele- 
vated, and  healthy  ;  then  it  will  react  stronger  on  the  mind  which  con- 
ceived it,  and  on  the  senses  which  created  it  in  their  serene  harmony. 

;.  No  other  plan  will  accomplish  this  end  better  than  the 
psycho-physiological  training  of  the  senses.  This  traming  will  keep 
sentries  wide-awake  to  the  approaches  of  unclean  viciousness,  give  to 
the  mind  that  turn  upward  which  makes  a  child  aspire  to  the  best 
associations,  and  carry  him  through  life,  noble  in  figure  as  well  as  in 
character ;  that  is  the  art  by  excellence. 

I  must  add  a  few  more  lines  for  those  who,  feebly  touched  by 
generalities,  demand  practical  means  of  instruction. 

j.  In  art  we  cannot  begin  too  soon.  We  have  surrounded 
the  cradle  (Part  I)  with  objects  interesting  by  their  colors,  move- 
ments, etc.  We  have  sent  the  child  out,  as  soon  as  he  could  walk, 
with  the  stimulus  of  something  to  look  at,  even  held  him  u;,  to  his 
point  of  vision  and  perspective ;  educated  his  index,  with  ours,  to 
indicate  to  the  eye  what  is  to  be  looked  at ;  now  we  gather  his  forces 
of  perception  on  what  circumscribes  and  defines  everything :  the  line. 

k.  The  line,  proof  of  the  identity,  expression  of  the  vitality 
of  ideas,  language  given  to  brute  matter  (so  called)  to  make  it  in- 
telligible, even  eloquent. — He  who  learns  to  read  the  "lines,"  reads 
a  "book"  larger  than  all  our  Hbraries;  whose  unknown  volumes, 
which  can  be  likened  to  those  of  the  Sibyl's,  differ  from  them  in 
this,  that  they  have  not  been  burnt,  but  remain  as  yet  unopened. 
Therefore,  to  make  a  child  follow  lines,  to  intercept  with  a  glance 
their  junction,  to  form  a  plan  or  a  solid ;  to  reproduce  these  phys- 
iognomic traits  of  "objects"  with  the  righteous  concourse  of  an  un- 
prejudiced eye  and  of  a  confident  hand,  is  the  means  of  opening  to 
the  awakening  senses  and  mind  the  proscenium  of  nature. 

Therefore,  let  the  child  find  and  reproduce  the  lines  and  con- 
nections whence  result  "plans,  figures,  and  contours,"  long  before 
"writing  and  reading."  Let  him  comprehend  simultaneously  these 
three  languages  of  objects  in  their  triple  form  of  substances,  of  plan, 
of  line.  Let  him  begin,  say :  by  a  building  of  bricks  or  wooden 
blocks,  a  plan  of  it  in  paper  or  paste-board,  and  its  line-reproduction 
on  the  blackboard ;  then,  inversely,  the  line-figure  on  a  plan,  then 
cut  in  paper,  then  modeled  in  clay,  or  wax,  or  other  material.  Thus 
you  exercise  at  once  the  hand  to  reproduce  the  same  thing  in  its 
different  forms,  the  eye  to  extract,  and  the  mind  to  abstract  the 
ideal  of  these  forms  from  their  diverse  material  envelopes.  Your 
child  has  learned,  not  only  to  draw  and  model  after  the  method  ex- 
posed above,  but  to  extract  ideal  forms  from  matter,  to  idealize  his 
sensory  perceptions,  and  to  store  them  for  future  use. 

/.  The  kindergarteners  understand  the  role  uf  drawing  in  edu- 
cation, and  cannot  be  too  much  prized  for  having  gathered-in  the 


168  

now  scattered  work-and-play  occupations  which  once  kept  together, 
around  the  hearth,  children  with  their  parents  in  the  spare  hours 
of  evening,  etc.  But  these  zealous  teachers  of  the  infant  must  be 
warned  of  the  one-sidedness  of  their  efforts.  In  line  drawing,  sew- 
ing, cutting,  building,  etc.,  they  make  their  pupils'  work-and-play  al- 
ways on  the  bi-lateral  plan,  which  excludes  tiie  'Hmprevu""  from  the 
imagination,  in  favor  of  the  foreseen,  and  induces  an  unavoidable 
symmetry.  This  training  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  stops  where 
automatism  ceases ;  whereas  each  of  the  symmetrical  exercises  must, 
in  my  opinion,  be  followed  or  preceded  by  an  asymmetric  one,  in 
order  to  represent,  side  by  side,  the  two  forms  of  drawing  found  in 
nature.  So  we  do  for  idiotic  children. — Froebel  himself,  not  a  Josse 
but  a  progressive  mind,  would  have  found  no  fault  in  this  correction; 
rather — completion  of  his  views. 

m.  To  conclude,  I  ask :  What  is  the  place  of  drawing  in 
education . . . .  ?  As  it  leads  to  the  higher  and  lesser  arts,  helps  the 
jeweler,  laborer,  artisaii,  the  inventor  to  create,  and  the  woman  to 
subdue ;  and  gives  a  feehng  of  satisfaction  when  present,  and  one 
of  uneasiness  when  we  miss  it;  likewise  its  place  is  at  all  the  degrees, 
and  particularly  in  the  first  steps  of  the  grades  of  education.  In 
the  high-schools  as  a  branch  of  the  fine  arts,  of  mathematics,  phys- 
ics, etc. ;  in  the  secondary  schools,  as  an  accompfishment  event- 
ually useful,  and  in  the  primary  as  a  necessity.  For  the  masses  will 
not  go  farther,  and  the  poorer  the  man,  the  better  educated  his 
hand  must  be. 

So  drawing  at  all  the  degrees  of  education ;  for  rich  or  poor, 
infant  or  adolescent, — "drawing  taught  like  writing,"  as  said  De  La- 
borde  after  seeing  the  London  Exhibition  of  185 1. 

«.  The  difference  between  teaching  drawing  to  future  artists 
and  to  artisans  (which  latter  expression  involves  all  who  "use"  their 
hands),  cannot  be  too  strongly  marked.  Several  schools  suffer  from 
this  confusion,  the  Austrian  and  the  Italian,  the  French,  too,  not- 
withstanding the  protests  and  practical  efforts  of  Oitin,  of  Paris. 
Even  in  Kensington  the  distinction  does  not  seem  well  drawn,  at 
least  in  the  programme.  In  practice,  this  school  has  certainly  given 
an  impulse  to  the  "Industrial  arts,"  though  its  London  exhibitions 
are  mainly  of  the  "beaux  arts."  But  I  have  seen  more  "useful  art" 
at  the  branch  school  of  Manchester,  not  to  speak  of  the  other  pro- 
vincial branches  I  know  only  by  reports. 

In  these  schools,  as  well  as  in  Buda-Pesth,  Brussels,  Amsterdam, 
Turin,  the  teaching  is  divided  in  two  parts  :  the  general,  which  is 
obligatory,  and  the  technics,  of  which  each  pupil  chooses  one. 

As  for  what  they  call  "methods,"  that  is  a  big  name  for  a  small 
thing,  at  least  not  bigger  than  the  man  who  affixes  his  name  to  it. 
Let  us  call  it  "individual  manner,"  except  that  of  Pestalozzi  at 
Yverdun,  the  cradle  of  the  "new  education." 


169  

From  the  standpoint  ot  the  principles,  there  is  only  one  true 
drawing,  that  is  from  nature,  instead  of  from  others'  drawings ;  and 
two  methods :  (a)  one  which  leaves  the  field — or  plan  to  draw 
upon — a  blank  upon  which  the  imagination  images,  and  the  hand 
traces  the  image,  (b)  The  second  method  covers  the  plan  with 
lines  or  points  of  reference  which  serve  as  guides  to  the  eye  and  hand. 
Froebel  adopted  this  latter  course,  likely  the  easier  for  infants,  whose 
hand,  alert  at  automatism,  is  irresolute  under  the  dictates  of  a  yet 
confused  imagination. 

With  due  homage  to  Ramsauer,  Boniface,  Daix,  Dupuis,  Walter 
Smith  of  Boston,  Marcus  Wilson  of  New  York,  Hendricks  of  Brus- 
sels, and  others,  for  their  excellent  work  in  special  and  in  public 
schools,  we  favor  the  former  plan.  Reduce  the  drawing  in  the 
pnmary  school  to  its  physiological  element,  the  training  of  the  eye 
and  of  the  hand.  To  understand  this,  it  is  necessary  to  remember 
that  the  hand  has  learned  the  forms  by  the  tact,  which  takes 
cognizance  of  the  reality ;  and  that  the  eye  has  learned  the  same 
from  perspective,  which  is  the  mode  of  receiving  impressions  on  the 
retina. 

Though,  on  the  main,  these  two  modes  of  perception  (and 
of  execution)  are  confirmatory  one  of  the  other,  they  give  some- 
times different,  even  contradictory,  results,  according  to  the 
prevalence  of  the  hand  on  the  eye,  or  of  the  eye  on  the  hand,  as 
seen  in  the  Chinese  art  compared  to  the  European.  A  practical 
illustration  of  this  in  the  school  would  be  of  a  ladder :  if  drawn 
twenty  times  as  it  is  (felt  by  the  hand)  it  will  present  twenty  times 
the  same  ladder ;  but  drawn  as  it  looks  in  twenty  different  perspec- 
tives, it  will  present  twenty  different  images. 

How  important  for  working  people  that  the  hand  does  not 
betray  the  eye,  nor  the  eye  mislead  the  hand;  therefore,  let  the  two 
forms  of  drawing,  the  real  and  the  ideal,  be  taught  separately  and 
conjomtly.  The  former  comprises  the  lines  and  their  dimensions 
(metric),  their  directions  (geometric),  and  proportions  (metric),  and 
their  angles  of  intersection  or  origin.  The  second  comprises  the 
linear  perspective,  the  conventional  drawing,  and  the  projections  : 
for  which  part  M.  F.  Aborn,  of  Cleveland,  received,  at  the  exhibition 
of  Paris,  just  commendation. 

79. — Writing  and  Reading,  a.  We  have  said:  "drawing 
before  writing,"  as  we  practiced  it  in  the  school  for  idiots  before  1840. 

b.  There  are  two  methods  of  teaching  it ;  by  the  sirniale  the 
child  writes  as  soon,  as  much,  and  as  badly  as  possible ;  by  the 
physiological,  he  draws  before  he  writes,  in  the  following  order :  From 
a  vertical  line  to  a  horizontal,  thence  an  oblique,  a  curve;  one  line 
generated  from  another,  and  their  combinations  giving  numberless 
figures,  among  which  will  be  those  of  the  letters ;  if  the  child,  from 
this  crowd  of  figures,  recognize  the   printed  letters  he  met  in  the 


l'?0 

books ^  etc. ;  or  vice  versa^  recognize  those  of  the  books,  etc.,  as 
identical  in  form  to  those  on  his  blackboard,  then  it  is  time  they 
are  named  to  him ;  he  must  have  the  form  before  the  name  instead 
of  the  name  before  the  form, — an  all  important  difference.  Since 
even  supposing  him  to  receive  at  the  same  time  the  double  notion 
of  form  and  name  included  in  the  idea  of  letter,  the  notion  of  form 
soon  becomes  merged,  for  the  eye,  in  the  group-notion  of  syllable, 
and  then  with  the  more  complicated  group-notion  of  word ;  and 
the  hand,  in  the  act  of  writing,  led  by  the  eye  and  spurred  by  the 
mind,  attenuates  the  individuality  of  each  letter,  in  favor  of  that 
of  the  word  and  for  brevity's  sake,  till  the  paper  is  covered  with  a 
sort  of  word-hieroglyph  legible  only  to  the  initiated,  not  always  by 
the  writer  himself.  Whereas,  when  the  hand  and  mind  have  been 
at  first  bent  on  the  form  of  each  letter,  this  form  is  not  so  easily 
melted  in  the  common  pi. 

c.  The  simple  fact  is,  the  more  we  write,  the  worse  we  write, 
till  our  chirography  has  become  a  disgrace  to  our  civilization.  In 
proof  of  which,  whoever  goes  to  the  British  Museum,  to  the  National 
Library  of  Paris,  and  other  such  places,  after  having  tried  his  best  to 
decipher  affectionate  riddles  from  home,  and  sees  the  brick-books 
of  the  ancient  Asiatics,  and  the  pencilled  letters  and  firmans 
of  modern  Orientals,  cannot  let  his  beguiled  eye  fall  on  his  own 
hand  without  a  feeling  of  humiliation,  and  the  wish  that  the  next 
generation,  at  least,  may  write  a  better  hand. 

d.  Various  causes  have  contributed  to  this  degradation  :  The 
amount  of  business  now  registered,  which  once  was  intrusted  to 
good  faith ;  the  demand  for  quick  interchange  of  communications, 
the  rapidity  of  our  thought  and  the  besoin  of  speaking  them  afar, 
have  so  taxed  the  material  capacity  of  the  hand  to  write,  that  we 
begin  to  feel  that  we  can  no  more  put  up  with  the  exigencies  of  our 
twenty-five  letters,  than  could  the  Greeks'  m;  ntal  activity  do  with 
the  Egyptian  hieroglyphs,  or  the  Phoenician  alphabet. 

e.  But  the  mischief  done  by  over-writing  is  not  all  material. 
After  years  of  inordinate  writing  and  ciphering  at  school,  the 
young  people  rise  from  the  benches,  and  on  the  strength  of  their 
capacity  for  copying  and  figuring,  fall  upon  society  to  be  fed  as 
clerks.  A  pretended  education  has  crippled  them  of  all  virile  power 
of  production.  Less  modest,  other  scholars  attempt  to  write,  from 
the  unconsciousness  of  their  reminiscences,  books  which  call  in  vain 
for  an  Omar,  and  whose  destiny  is  more  ignominious  than  fire. 
There  are  so  many  reasons  for  not  allowing  children  to  read  too 
soon,  that  I  almost  forgot  to  mention  the  strongest,  that  is  the  most 
physiological. — As  soon  as  we,  young  or  old,  have  taken  to  the 
habit  of  asking  the  book  for  what  it  is  in  our  power  to  learn  from 
personal  observation,  we  dismiss  our  organ  of  perception  and  com- 
prehension from  their  righteous  charge,  and  cover  the  emptiness 
of  our  own  mind  with  the  patch-work  of  others. 


—  ni  — - 

The  same  chiromania  has  enfeebled  and  made  scarce  the  power 
of  speech. — Writing,  instead  of  speaking,  and  writing  from  books 
instead  of  from  nature,  have  made  lare  original  minds  and  genuine 
men.  All  have  copied  from  the  same  books  (school-books),  and 
afterwards  from  each  other,  till,  when  we  come  in  contact  with  any 
of  them,  we  cannot  detect'  a  difference  ;  all  the  same  like  billiard  balls. 
Another  mconvenience  is  that,  having  learned  to  write  from  books, 
the  scholars  have  two  styles — one  in  writing,  the  other  in  speak- 
ing ;  one  bombast,  the  other  oftener  incorrect  than  otherwise, — 
instead  of  a  single  natural  language.  Not  meaning  to  strike  by  this 
criticism  "the  man  of  the  moon,"  we  would  like  to  exchange  our 
two  styles  (of  writing  and  speaking)  for  the  single  one  resulting 
from  our  own  temperament,  and,  having  mainly  this  country  in  view, 
we  wish  that  a  physiological  system  of  national  education  could 
perpetuate  the  double  American  fine  art  of  speaking  manly  when 
standing  nobly. 

/.  Co7iclusions. — The  time  has  arrived  when  a  division  of  la- 
bor in  the  means  of  transmi.ssion  of  thoughts  must  bring  a  relief  to 
the  hand  and  to  the  mind  :  First,  by  the  teaching,  in  school,  of  the 
fairest  symbols  which  are  possible  when  two  or  three  lines  only  will 
be  traced  two  or  three  times  a  day,  like  painting :  "paint  your  let- 
ters," my  old  writing-master  used  to  say ;  second,  by  teaching  to 
all  a  short-hand  made  oblisjatory  in  the  exercises ;  and  third,  by  the 
use,  in  school  and  inter-schools,  of  the  electric  telegraph  and  tele- 
phone, keeping  in  turn  each  pupil  as  a  sentry  at  this  post  of  com- 
munication. 

80. — Speaking  and  Talking,  a.  I  just  said,  let  us  improve 
the  American  fine  art  of  speaking  manly.  J  would  add  not  a  word 
if  that  art  was  not,  instead  of  improved,  endangered  by  other  causes 
than  the  excess  of  writing. 

The  excessive  number  of  pupils  crowded  in  too  large  class- 
rooms makes  young  voices  inaudible,  unless  they  are  forced  above 
their  natural  diapason,  mainly  by  infants  and  girls.  They  feel  their 
mcapacity,  and  in  their  effort  for  being  heard,  they  rough  (irailk) 
the  edges  of  their  vocal  cords,  and  will  never  be  able  to  emit  a 
velvety  or  silvery  sound. 

This  defect,  rendered  more  violent  by  its  contrast  with  the 
sweet  countenance  and  faces,  becomes  a  habit  by  three  stimuli :  one 
from  the  teacher  who  cannot  speak  (and  command)  five  hours  in 
the  aforsaid  conditions  without  straining,  therefore  harshing  her 
voice;  the  second,  from  the  excess  of  recitation  over  colloquial 
narration;  the  third,  by  the  see-saw  counting,  singing,  etc.,  which, 
besides  giving  horrible  bends  to  the  voice,  hypnotise  the  mind. 

Such  defects  of  the  voice  become  contagious.  From  some 
schools,  ^^Vkole  du  soldaf  for  instance,  spreads  over  a  whole  nation 

U9) 


1*^2  

the  strident  and  giitteral  syllable  of  command ;  the  man  who  col- 
lects your  faro  demands  it  in  a  dry,  coppery  tone ;  and  all  around 
every  one  corporalizes  everybody,  as  if  they  were,  one  and  all,  le 
petit  corporal. — Oh  !  my  ears  ! 

b.  The  first  thing,  when  we  want  a  child  to  speak,  is  not  to 
command  him  to  "open  his  mouth  and  keep  his  teeth  apart,"  as 
advised  by  the  good  Rollin,  but  to  see  that  he  is,  as  a  whole,  "ready 
to  speak,"  that  is,  in  a  proper  posture,  viz  :  the  main  support  on  the 
left,  to  steady  the  heart ;  the  hand  of  the  same  side  holding  the  book 
in  reading ;  in  speaking,  helping  the  right,  not  so  much  for  oratory 
gesture  as  for  the  physiological  movements  of  the  arms  which  fill 
up  the  lungs,  and  give  or  economize  the  voice  ;  then  deep  inspira- 
rations,  silently  made,  to  clear  up  the  air-tubes  and  cells,  expand  the 
chest,  and  give  the  measure  of  the  possible  length  of  the  sonorous 
expirations  to  which  a  long  period  can  be  intrusted. 

c.  To  "talk"  [causer),  a  reclining  posture  is  preferable  to  the 
stork  one, — as  allowing  the  thoughts  to  run  more  leisurely,  and  the 
image  to  take  softer  tints.  Then  an  occasional  sally  must  here  and  there 
clear  up  the  bronchia,  and  sdmulate  the  diaphragm,  since  laugh- 
ing is  the  healthiest  of  the  arts,  one  which  cannot  be  too  much 
cultivated  and  applauded  in  children.  But  who  will  teach  it  ?  The 
school  offers  a  few  opportunities,  and  the  teacher,  it  seems,  has  no 
time.  However,  let  us  remember  recess,  excursions,  museums,  and 
garden-lessons, — opportunities,  in,  and  after  which,  the  reclining 
couch  upholstered  with  grass,  moss,  bark,  or  granite,  invites  the 
child,  as  well  as  the  adolescent,  to  palavers  and  Decamerons. 

Let  us  affirm,  also,  that  the  parents, — every  year  better  informed 
of  their  edu'cational  duties  toward  their  charge, — will  learn  how  to 
continue  the  school  at  home.  This  is  a  dangerous  hint,  which  I 
would  not  have  put  forward  if  I  could  not  qualify  it  in  a  few  words. 

d.  When  the  school  is  over,  study  must  be  over,  too.  There  is 
time  for  the  girl  to  learn  how  to  manage  a  home  (under  the  plea  ot 
helping  her  mother,  or  of  mothering  her  youngers), — no  mean 
accomplishment;  there  is  time  for  the  boy  to  try  his  hand  at  the 
accessories  of  the  pursuit  of  his  father,  or  of  some  friend, — a  good  test 
of  future  avocations ;  and  there  is  yet  more  time,  in  the  afternoons 
and  evenings,  during  the  days  and  weeks  of  vacation,  for  sports  and 
healthy  exercises.  Walks,  visiting  manufactories,  rare  engines, 
periodical  exhibitions,  and  the  like,  which  form  a  group,  and  in 
another  cluster,  reading  aloud,  reciting  poetry,  and  dialogues, 
declaiming,  narrating  and  talking  either  from  memory  or  impromptu, 
ought  to  be  the  daily  gymnastics  of  the  lungs  and  of  the  function  ot 
imaging  which  elates  and  elevates  the  imagination.  The  parents 
who  shun  these  evening  operas-boufte,  will  get  their  desert  in  the 
neglect  of  their  children  less  than  twenty  years  hence.  Since  the 
school  supplements  the  family,  the  family  must  complement  the 
school. 


173  

In  this  pre  and  post  family-education,  the  father  trains  the  eye 
and  hand  of  the  child,  and  the  mother  charms  his  ear,  when  sewing 
and  knitting,  or  drawing  on  canvas,  by  talks  which  sound  hke 
music.  After  one  of  these  stories,  Eddy  says  :  ''Mamma,  more  sing- 
ing; more  singing,  Mamma!"  Had  the  Pharao  Necho  listened  to 
a  three-yearling,  he  would  not  have  instituted  his  famed  philological 
inquiry,  and  be  baffled  by  a  baby  and  a  goat. 

8i.  Language. — Let  us  remember  this  in  the  next  paragraph  ; 
for  the  present  suffice  it  to  say  that  language  is  music  to  the  ear  be- 
fore it  becomes  ratio  io  the  mind  ;  that  old  languages  were  incanted, 
and  so  are  their  remnants  and  amalgams  called  "patois." 

a.  Primaries  of  language. — When  looking  at  the  child  in  his 
cradle  (Part  I),  we  might  have  seen  that  the  best  teacher  of  the 
language  is  the  mother,  the  best  vocabulary  a  mellow  voice  singing 
in  alternation  double  and  contrasting  sounds.  What  does  the  l)aby 
understand  of  what  she  says?  Who  can  tell, since  he  does  not  speak 
yet  ?  Never  mind,  he  can  tell.  To  a  laughing  voice  he  answers  by 
a  laugh,  to  a  scolding,  not  addressed  to  him  but  simply  vibrati?ig  in 
his  atmosphere,  he  cries.  He,  like  the  deaf-mutes,  understands  of 
our  language  the  passional  qualities  of  its  vibrations.  But  soon, 
when  nature  or  the  city  begins  to  take  its  evening  rest,  the 
mother's  incantations  become  more  articulated,  and  the  child,  better 
prepared  to  listen,  falls  asleep  with  the  roll  in  his  ears  of  these  new 
syllables,  which,  after  lurking  in  his  dream,  come  first  out  of  his 
throat  in  the  morning. 

b.  But  now,  what  a  change  !  He  is  at  school.  The  voice  of 
command  is  rarely  softened  by  affectionate  vibrations ;  he  is  seated 
among  the  engines  of  obedience,  in  variable,  yet  almost  always  un- 
comfortable attitudes,  mumbling  lessons  and  reciting  them  ;  and 
what  lessons  ?  On  what  he  has  seen,  can  love,  searches,  desires,  is 
curious  about  1  No.  The  subjects  on  which  his  attention  is  called 
are  more  indifferent  than  otherwise.  Vide  his  book,  full  of  matter 
good  to  learn^  but  not  of  matter  which  could  provoke  children  to 
talk,  to  develop  and  use  their  inward  dictionary ;  and  the  latter  is 
what  needs  to  be  created  to  form  their  "Thesaurus  of  English 
words,"  according  to  the  comprehensive  expression  of  Peter  Mark 
Roget ;  which  will  put  at  their  command  a  thesaurus  of  ideas. 

c.  Objects  and  images  introduced  in  the  school  to  increase 
knowledge,  have  been  also  employed  to  provoke  language  to  come 
out.  But  what  can  teach  language  better  than  speech  itself?  Vide 
the  mother.  She  taught  speech  by  speaking  herself,  showing  that 
the  great  master  of  language  is  not  the  book,  the  image,  the  ob- 
ject, but  the  physiological  method  of  inciting  in  a  child,  and  in 
propagating  in  children,  the  besoin  de parler,  whicli,  from  Ijeing  con- 
tagious, becomes  unanimous.  This  method  employs  two  processes, 
which]  the  mother  has  intuitively  followed  :  one  is  didactic,  the 
other,  spontaneous. 


174  

d.  By  the  didactic,  the  words  are  read  in  their  ideologic  order 
(not  in  the  alpliabetic)  under  two  heads  of  affirmative  and  negative, 
and  the  children  must  recall  them  when  the  teacher,  or  an  ad- 
vanced pupil,  writes  them  in  their  respective  columns  on  the 
blackboard,  and  continues  to  provoke  answers  till  all  the  expres- 
sions known  as  analogous  and  contrastant  stand  opposite  each  other 
before  the  class.  The  children  complement  each  other's  dictionary 
in  this  way.  Supposing  the  girls  and  boys  on  different  aisles  of  the 
room,  or  any  other  division  of  the  pupils ;  a  noun  is  given  to  a  divi- 
sion whose  members  must  find  all  its  analogies,  and  the  opposite 
division  all  its  contraries,  or  the  corresponding  verbs  are  asked  from 
one  division,  and  the  adjectives  from  another.  The  children  who 
have  found  an  answer  raise  a  finger,  the  teacher  points  with  his  to 
the  child  allowed  to  speak  ;  every  word  flows  from  these  various 
sources  as  from  a  single  one;  and  hardly  a  definition  is  called  for 
to  redress  mistakes  or  to  give  more  relief  to  an  idea,  the  juxtaposi- 
tion suffices  to  light  up  analogies  and  contrasts.  The  same  method 
serves  to  teach,  comparatively,  two  languages. 

e.  By  the  second  exercise,  the  children  serve  alternately  as 
models  and  critics  to  each  other,  and,  being  all  liable  to  be  called  to 
speak,  must,  every  one  of  them,  have  every  day  something  ready  to 
be  said.  This  something  must  be  called  from  their  self-experience, 
sensation,  and  living  feeling ;  as  an  incident  which  has  just  happened, 
to  be  toki  for  the  freshness  of  its  details  and  colors;  a  scene  in  the 
street,  a  new  object  of  art  or  a  pattern  of  fashion,  a  party,  something 
grotesque,  a  word  wittily  report::d,  or  a  quotation  sensibly  repeated. 
For  instance,  of  the  power  of  "diction"  given  by  the  mastery  of  lan- 
guage, when  S.  B.,  just  out  of  school,  demanded  admission  to  the 
conservatoire  of  Paris,  Aubert,  president  of  the  concourse,  seeing 
the  frail  creature,  compassionately  said  :  "Mon  enfant,  can  you  recite 
something?" — "Oh  !  (long  and  low)  yes,  sir." — "You  are  so  young;  tell 
us  a  fable." — She  began  :  "Deux  pigeons  s'aimaient  d'amour  tendre." 
— Aubert.  interrupting  :  "Messieurs,  she  is  received." — "But,"  re- 
monstrated one  of  the  judges,  "she  has  said  only  a  verse." — "Precise- 
ly that  is  enough,  she  is  received  ;"  and  the  other  judges  received  her 
in  the  school,  whence  she  came  a  writer,  a  painter,  a  sculptor, 
Donna  Sol. 

Far  from  this  quadruple  fecundity  of  means  of  expressing  their 
ideas,  experience,  and  passions,  children  have  been  educated  and 
live  intellectually  upon  an  incredibly  small  provender  of  words. 
Some  "educated"  people  have  not  actually  twenty  adjectives  to  color 
their  facts,  nor  twenty  verbs  to  express  the  modes  of  activity.  For 
these  scholars,  everything  is  nice  or  funny;  or  put  in,  out,  up,  down, 
away,  etc.  But  they  "make  up,"  meaning  compensate  this  paucity 
of  language,  by  "accomplishments."  Yes,  the  school  which  cannot 
train  the  functions  of  a  physiological  order,  and  supply  the  people 


175  

with  an  abundant  language,  avenges  itself  by  teaching  "accomplish- 
ments" like  the  correct  spelling  of  wonis  which  need  not  be  used, 
or  are  not  needed  ;  the  talent  of  making  verses  in  lieu  of  poetry ; 
of  painting,  as  far  as  coloring  lithographs  and  photoes ;  and  the  ex- 
ercise of  the  piano. — Ah  !  par  Ions  en. 

82.  Musical  Instruction. — a.  The  piano  is  out  of  place  in 
public  schools,  except  as  a  tuner,  when  it  cannot  do  all  that  the 
metronome  accomplishes.  Marvellous  orchestra  under  the  fingers 
of  an  artist,  it  has  enticed  millions  of  children  to  lose  their  time  and 
energy  in  frightening  the  birds,  and  sending  men  out  of  the  house.  It 
wastes,  every  day,  millions  of  irretrievable  hours  in  a  solitary  auto- 
matic exercise  of  the  ears  and  of  the  hand,  which  is  treason  to  the 
voice  and  lungs.  Luxurious  box  for  breeding  pulmonary  tubercle 
in  darkened  parlors,  I  recognize  thee !  Thou  wert  the  time-honored 
"Petrin"  (bread-box)  of  our  ancestors.  When  you  began  your 
chirping,  our  witty  fathers  called  thee  "Epinette,"  in  honor  of  the 
box-pan  from  which  young  chickens  emit  more  promising  music  ; 
and  now,  iron-lined  and  bronze  caped,  deafening  when  not  enchant- 
ing, thou  hast  grown  too  big  and  sonorous  for  the  use  of  a  family 
(unless  she  is  stagy) ;  get  away  from  the  school. 

If  pianing  had  not  gone  so  far,  I  would  not  have  sent  so 
bluntly  its  instrument  down  where  it  comes  from,  and  up,  where  it 
had  better  stay.  The  music  taught  in  school  cannot  depend  upon 
a  costly  and  immovable  machine.  It  is  not  taught  for  vanity,  but 
to  develop  the  physic,  to  incite  the  gaiety  which  wards  off  melan- 
choly and  insanity,  to  cultivate  the  avowablc  sympathies,  and  give 
cohesion  to  the  healthy  feelings  of  nationality  and  humanity  in  joy 
or  peril. 

It  recognizes  but  one  instrument,  the  voice,  two  parts  in  the 
teaching,  the  in-tuition  and  the  in-tonation,  whose  mathematics  are 
regulated  by  the  length  given  to  the  })endulum  of  a  metronome  : 
**music  is  mathematics"  (Pythagoras),  and  can  be  written  in  figures 
sooner  than  in  the  gothic  symbols  of  the  solfege. 

b.  This  physiological  music  gives  the  impulse  to  the  voice, 
thence  to  the  sympathetic  centres.  "Les  coeurs  sont  bien  pres  de 
s'entendre  (^uand  les  voix  ont  fraternise." 

It  is  the  music  of  the  national  anthems.  The  other,  coming 
out  from  a  box,  or  from  a  pipe,  narrows  and  individualizes  the  feel- 
ings ;  this  one,  coming  from  the  chest,  is  the  only  one  capable  of 
giving  expression  to  true  tenderness  and  national  vigor, 

c.  The  songs  of  Beranger  were  stronger  than  armies  in  1830. 
When  I  was  preparing  this  paper,  Italy  had  not  yet  awakened  ;  but 
she,  having  not  forgotten  her  popular  songs,  did  awake  in  a  chorus 
which  led  her  to  victory.  She  at  once  re-opened  her  schools  of 
music,  fine  arts,  industrial  arts,  engineering,  etc.,  and  the  Institute 
of  San  Felice  furnished  resuscitating  Venice  and  the  whole  Penin- 
sula with  masters-at-arts. 


176  

The  leaders  of  this  revolution  by  vocal  music  were  Rouget  de 
risle,  the  Turnvereine,  Amoros,  the  more  learned  Choron,  his 
successor  Wiihelm,  and  Berlioz,  Wagner,  Galin  Cheve,  Paris,  Vul- 
liemin,  Bosson,  Meylan,  Landa,  etc. ;  and  its  schools  were  the  Gym- 
nasia of  Germany,  the  Orpheon  of  Paris,  the  Union  Scolaires  of 
France,  the  Zofingue  of  Switzerland,  the  Ligue  de  I'Bnseignement 
in  Belgium,  etc.  Those  are  the  masters  to  be  consulted,  and  the 
methods  to  be  adapted  to  the  genius  of  each  people  and  of  their 
youth. 

83.  Imagination. — All  the  animals  imagine,  but  few  can  com- 
mand, co-ordinate,  and  evoke  the  images  unconsciously  stored; 
though  some  do,  on  some  limited  subjects,  the  same  as  idiots,  with 
a  superior  accuracy  and  unerring  judgment.  Men  only  can,  at  will, 
command,  co-ordinate,  and  evoke  a  large  collection  of  the  images 
they  have  unconsciously  or  willingly  stored ;  though  few  use  that 
privilege  to  any  great  or  useful  extent. 

a.  Several  causes  can  be  assigned  to  this  restricted  condition 
of  the  imaging  function,  whose  exercise  furnishes  the  materials  to 
imagination.  The  one  cause  interesting  here  is  the  eariy  and  pre- 
vious Iransferrence  to  memory  in  written  form  of  all  that  ought  to 
be  first  imaged  on  the  gray  matter.  But  it  is  quicker  to  learn  from 
books — simple  aggregates  of  the  twenty-five  letters — than  to  store 
de  visu  and  tactu  the  images  with  their  appurtenances  of  cause  and 
effect.  Parents  and  teachers  take  advantage  of  this,  to  send  the 
questioning  child  to  the  book.  That  is  why  he  who  knows  by  read- 
ing, rarely  asks  for  more  information,  and  ceases  to  be  able  to  know 
more  ;  while  he  who  has  photographed  the  thing,  can  always  evoke 
its  ideal  to  extend  its  comprehension,  and  to  make  it  enter  into  a 
variety  of  combinations  of  ideas,  which  become  thus  ready  for  real- 
ization. As  an  instance  and  proof:  How  early  have  I  been  taught 
to  call  "watch"  the  thing  which  was  coming  out  of  people's  pocket 
to  tell  them  how  much  time  they  have  lost  ?  I  was  too  young  to 
remember  ;  however,  the  seed  was  there,  and  when,  later,  the  steam 
engine  was  invented,  I  read  all  about  it ;  consequence,  at  sixty-eight, 
1  have  no  clearer  idea  of  these  mechanisms  than  my  grand-children 
have  of  the  clock  of  Strassburg,  and  so  it  is  for  all  people  about  all 
things.  Men  can  teach  easier  the  words  "watch,  engine,"  than  they 
can  impress  on  the  young  minds  their  forms,  uses,  and  eventual 
adaptations.  This  consideration  decides  the  point.  That  is  why 
children  know  so  much,  and  care  so  little  now-a-days.  Then,  was 
it  belter  sixty  hundred  years  ago  ?  It  was  worse,  but  considering 
the  social  conditions,  we  must  know  and  do  so  much  more  ;  that  is, 
almost  all  our  knowledge  must  be  turned  into  powers,  through  our 
images  and  imaging  faculties. 

b.     For   imagination    is  more   than    a    decorative  attribute  of 
leisure.     It  is  a  "power"  in  this  sense,  that  from  images  perceived 


177 

and  stored,  it  sublimes  ideals ;  and  conversely  substantiates  the  ideals 
once  erected  m  the  mind  as  abstract  entities.  That  is  why  the  training 
of  imagination  must  be  part  of  the  plainest  education,  since  a  person 
living  from  others'  work  may  have  it  or  not ;  but  living  upon  their 
own  work,  persons,  be  they  poets,  tailors,  jewellers,  etc.,  would,  with- 
out it,  starve  or  descend  to  the  level  of  a  wheel  without  cranks  in 
the  social  machine.  The  consequence  of  the  possession  or  depri- 
vation of  this  superior  nistrument  of  labor  is  so  portentous,  that,  had 
I  the  choice  of  one  out  of  two  great  calamities  to  befall  the  children 
I  love,  I   would  sooner  see  them  unalphabetic  than  unimaginative. 

c. .  Imagination  needs  to  be  educated,  like  the  other  psycho- 
logical operations  of  the  organism.  Three  ways  were  opened  :  by 
models,  by  observation,  and  by  psycho- physiological  education. 

^/.  The  method  of  inciting  the  imagination  by  the  constant 
exfiibitions  of  models,  long  prevailed.  It  consists  in  presenting  to 
fresh  imaginations  the  images  used  in  old  and  recent  imageries,  from 
poets,  mythologies,  and  treasurers  of  the  monstrous,  the  fantastic, 
and  other  impossibilities  ;  so  impossible,  that,  with  their  young  desire 
of  imagining,  pupils  could  only  copy  these  night-mare  classic 
images.  The  classical  furrow  was  so  deep  that,  when  the  Christians 
wanted  to  people  the  imagination  of  their  catechumens  with  new 
images,  they  had  to  use  the  pagan  ones,  hardly  travestied  in  frocks 
and  names.  And  when  the  pagan  poets  and  artists,  successors  of 
Holbein,  Diirer,  Venuci,  resolved  upon  starting  a  Renaissance  to 
please  the  Medici  and  Leo  X.,  they  opened  the  era  of  the  lascivious 
saints,  and  of  Popes  of  bronze  garlanded  with  Phrynes  of  white 
marble  {vide  Saint  Peter's  basihc).  The  same  furrow  has  so  deepened 
and  enlarged,  that  when  Napoleon  came  from  Egypt  with  savants 
and  artists  from  whom  something  new  was  expected,  he  and  they 
infected  their  country  with  pylones  and  sphinxes ;  when  Charles  X. 
ruled,  the  Gothic  oppressed ;  Victoria  Elizabethised  England,  who 
begins  to  know  better ;  and  when  Eugenie  returned  from  Suez, 
Cleopatras  were  rife  in  France.  So  much  for  the  imagination  of  the 
imitative,  a/ias  historical,  a/ias  classical  school. 

e.  In  the  industrial  arts,  more  imagination  was  shown ;  owing, 
probably,  to  new  besoins  and  new  materials  which,  recently  em- 
ployed in  industry,  demanded  original  observations,  and  gave 
somewhat  new  results.  This  school  has  obtained  the  latter  mainly 
by  giving  ofy'ec/  lessons^  which  can  be  praised  for  having  cleared  the 
brain  from  faded  images  and  phantasms  more  decrepit  than  the 
witches  of  Shakespeare  ;  but  not  for  the  creation  of  ideals.  It  is, 
after  all,  a  school  o^  fruits  sees. 

f.  The  methodical  extraction  of  ideals  from  objective  matters 
is  the  recent  conquest  of  a  phycho-physiological  method  of  in- 
struction. Deprecating — as  nature  itself  does — the  separation  of  the 
would-be  spirit  from   the  would-be  matter,  this  method  searches  the 


178 

one  ill  the  other,  attaching  an  idea  to  every  form,  giving  a  form  to 
every  idea.  In  this  sense,  and  in  this  way,  man  is  as  much  a  creator 
as  nature  itself. 

g.  This  method  rests  upon  the  capability  of  conduction — to 
and  fro  between  the  sensorium  and  the  senses; — in  the  present  in- 
stance of  the  capabihty  of  the  eye,  as  an  optical  instrument,  to 
receive  images,  and  to  transmit  them  photo-electrically  at  the 
other  end  of  the  optic  nerve,  where  they  can  be  registered; 
— upon  the  capacity  of  the  mind  to  survey  the  details  of  this 
physiologic  operation,  to  classify  and  to  locate  the  images  where- 
from  they  can  be  readily  called,  with  their  homologies  and  con- 
trasts ; — upon  the  sympathetic  impulse  which  prompts  the  evocation 
of  these  images  at  the  call  of  "besoin  ;" — upon  the  psychic  capacity 
of  creating  ideals  from  these  miages  and  their  combinations; — upon 
the  psycho-physiological  capacity  of  giving  to  the  primary  images, 
and  to  the  ideals  subhmed  from  them,  a  body,  sensible  (to  one  or 
more  of  our  senses)  effect  and  cause  of  the  creative  and  sendent 
power  of  imagination. 

The  fact  of  making  children  receive  a  physical  impression  or 
image ;  of  storing  it  wherefrom  they  can  call  it  for  use  ;  of  idealizing 
that  impression,  or  its  combination  with  others :  of  recalling,  on  de- 
mand, either  the  image  (imago),  or  its  ideal  (idea) ;  of  rendering  a 
body  to  that  image  or  ideal,  so  that  it  can  be  once  more  enjoyed 
in  substance, — such  is  the  problem,  much  more  difficult  to  explain 
metaphysically  than  to  solve  practically.  In  practice,  the  training 
of  the  imagination  of  children  is  rendered  easy  by  beginning  with 
simple  material  on  the  most  psycho-physiological  plan. 

A.  To  begin  low  enough,  let  us  take  the  simplest  object  whose 
proportions  are  homologous,  yet  different ;  say:  a  block  1x2x4,  later 
several  like  it. — ist.  You  put  that  block  in  a  certain  position  on  the 
table;  the  child  to  do  the  same  with  a  like  block,  seeing  yours, 
and.  You  put  your  block  up,  and  take  it  away  as  soon  as  he  has 
seen  it,  and  he  must,  from  memory,  put  his  as  yours  was.  3rd.  You 
arrange  together  two,  three,  or  more  blocks,  so  as  to  make  of  them 
a  figure,  and  you  cause  him  to  make  the  same  dg  visu.  4th. 
You  make  another  figure,  and  when  he  has  seen  it,  you  destroy 
it,  asking  him  to  reproduce  it  at  once  from  the  "imago"  of 
yours,  left  in  his  imagery.  5th.  You  make  another  figure,  and 
when  he  has  seen  it,  you  destroy  it  and  ask  him,  hours  and  days 
afterward,  to  represent  it.  6th.  You  choose,  and  treat  as  above, 
objects  heterogeneous  in  substance,  color,  or  form,  to  make  figures 
more  or  less  complicated,  causing  the  child  to  imitate  them  from  sight, 
then  from  memory;  so  that  in  these  exercises  of  imaging  and 
imagining,  the  mmd,  the  senses,  and  the  hand  executrice  re-pass 
through  the  series  of  operations,  which  constitute  a  complete  exer- 
cise of  imagination.     7th.    After  this,  you  rarely  choose,  rather  point 


179 

out,  the  occurrent  things  whose  images  the  child  must  register  in  de- 
tail on  the  spot ;  images  which  you  will  recall  at  opportune  times, 
to  allow  him  either  to  revivify  their  colors  and  lines,  if  they  are 
worth  preserving  for  future  use,  or  to  reproduce  them  now,  at  your 
bidding,  in  substance,  in  picture,  trait,  or  words.  8th.  The  first 
and  the  last  operations  of  imagination,  viz. :  the  perception  and 
the  re-creation  of  the  objects  of  imagination,  are  susceptible  of  as- 
suming several  forms,  of  which  the  most  interesting  here  are  the 
substantial,  the  pictorial,  the  linear,  and  the  verbal. 

Some  persons  contend  that  the  thing  itself  contains  more  in- 
formation than  its  picture,  trait,  or  description.  It  is  not  always  so, 
on  account  either  of  the  nature  of  the  object,  or  of  the  perceptive 
qualities  of  the  subject  in  training.  Moreover,  the  physiological 
method  of  developing  the  powers  (not  the  fancies)  of  imagination, 
does  not  exclude,  but  exercises  these  powers  in  their  various  forms  : 
a.  by  the  object  itself,  which  explains  many  relations ;  If.  by  the 
color,  which  animates ;  c.  by  the  trait,  which  precises  ;  ^.  lastly, 
by  the  language,  which  enters  where  the  senses  cannot  penetrate. 

Is  it  to  say,  that  every  impression  and  expression  of  the  imagin- 
ation will  have  to  be  completed  by  these  four  tests,  or  more  ?  No, 
because  most  of  the  time  the  nature  of  the  objective  gives  sufficient 
indications  of  the  one  test  of  thoroughness  it  requires ;  no,  again, 
because  this  form  of  training  is  so  "entraining,"  that,  once  drilled  to 
it,  the  faculty  of  the  child  will  follow  it  as  the  bird  follows  the  track 
of  his  "besoin."  Yes,  soon  the  child  will,  in  the  presence  of  any 
sight,  perceive  all  its  details  and  be  able  to  reproduce  them  with  one 
or  the  other  of  the  "graphics"  at  the  disposal  of  his  imagination ; 
and  man,  he  will  not  see  a  machine,  without  being  able  to  work  it, 
nay,  to  correct  it,  in  his  imagination,  and  if  he  tries  to  realize  any  of 
his  own  inventions,  it  will  be  with  the  image  (imago)  of  what  he 
wants,  so  complete  and  accurate,  that  it  will  look  as  if  it  had  come 
out  complete  from  his  head,  as  Minerva  from  Jupiter's,  perfect 
emblem  of  a  product  of  imagination  equipoised  by  taste  and  com- 
mon sense. 

I.  But  imagination  does  not  feed  exclusively  on  things  descrip- 
tive and  material,  it  craves,  and  justly  so,  for  models  of  moral, 
intellectual,  and  physical  excellence.  At  all  degrees  of  civilization, 
the  interest  attached  to  the  reading  of  the  human  face  is  intense,  at 
all  ages,  too.  The  child  already  alluded  to  interrupts  my  scriboling 
by  introducing  Washington,  Franklin,  Lafayette,  Clinton,  Humboldt, 
a  crowd  a  hundred  strong  or  about ;  each  with  his  title  to  notoriety: 
Stephenson,  who  made  the  first  railroad  ;  Fulton,  who  built  the  first 
steamboat ;  Constantine,  the  tyrant  of  Warsaw,  (pointing  to  his  eyes) 
"a  bad  man." 

The  economical  loss  by  want  of  the  training  of  the  imagination 
in  the  masses  retards  the  elevation  to  their  due  ranks  of  the  working 

(20) 


180 

classes,  and  causes  an  annual  deficit  of  millions.  But  the  damage 
caused  to  society  by  the  absence  of  education  of  imagination,  and 
the  consequent  incapacity  of  the  people  to  read  the  countenances 
like  books,  allows  brigands  to  play  the  part  of  leading  citizens  to  a 
moral  cost  which  cannot  be  valued  in  figures. 

j.     Looking  higher,  what  are  we  without  an  imagination,  active 

or  only  reflective  ? (I  do  not  mean  to  speak  of  the  imagination 

"Folle  du  Logis,"  which  amuses  the  idlers  as  "Le  Fou  du  Roi"  amuses 
the  court.)  The  imagination  I  invoke,  I  provoke,  I  evoke  from  the 
innermost  recess  of  philosophical  history  and  mental  physiology  is 
the  one  which, — industrious  as  a  bee, — preying  (butinant)  on  all 
sides,  receives  and  registers  images,  sublimes  from  them  pure  ideals, 
composite  ideas,  generalizations,  and  returns  these  entities,  realities  at 
the  end  of  the  neurotic  circuit. 

This  is,  in  action,  the  nervous  function  for  the  training  of  which 
is  claimed  a  large  place  in  the  family,  and  in  the  school.  Youth  is 
the  age  for  its  physiological  development.  "Make  hay  while  the 
sun  shines,"  that  is,  make  provision — rather — treasures  of  impres- 
sions on  the  fresh,  impressive  tablets  of  the  sensorium.  The  child, 
having,  from  the  start,  stocked  this  "imagery"  with  simple  images, 
from  the  lines  which  circumscribe  a  quadrilateral  and  triangle,  dif- 
ferentiate two  leaves,  etc.,  soon  arrives  at  the  confines  of  his  infantile 
domain,  and  his  imagination  asks  for  more.  It  is  then,  when  the 
primary  simple  impressions  have  been  registered  as  such,  that,  having 
made,  like  Robinson  Crusoe,  the  tour  of  his  island,  he  undertakes  other 
excursions,  during  which  his  imagination  does  not  register  things 
isolated  as  they  appeared  at  the  first  look,  but  as  they  appear  now, 
and  really  are  in  relation  to  each  other,  to  their  causes  and  effects, 
etc. 

This  co-relative  view  of  things,  their  ratio;  almost  fiihil,  at  least 
imperceptible  at  first,  becomes  more  and  more  the  important  part  of 
the  perceived  images,  till  imagination,  becoming  used  to  receive  and 
send  forth  the  cause  for  the  effect,  the  abstract  for  the  concrete,  the 
induction  for  the  proof,  constantly  creates  new  relations  between 
things  and  opens  new  vistas  upon  the  relations  between  things  and 
ideals.  It  is  so,  that  between  the  simplest  image,  and  the  ideal  it 
siiscitates,  imagination  images  new  ideals,  new  relations,  and  appli- 
cations thereof;  and  by  its  incessant  synergy,  [vis)  peoples  the 
invisible  world  with  the  images  from  the  visible  world ;  and  fills  the 
visible  world  with  the  realizations,  in  substance,  of  the  ideals,  concepts 
of  the  invisible  world. 

k.  In  this  xuvrc  of  incessant  creation  and  revelation,  the 
main  cause  of  miscarriage  to  be  avoided  would  be  the  early  prece- 
dence usually  given  to  the  written,  over  the  substantial  image; 
for  once,  accepted  in  words,  writing  remains  incorrectible  and  inex- 
tensible ;  its  infecundity  being  measurable  by  the  paralyzing  effect 


181  

which  the  use  of  "locutions" — instead  of  fresh  descriptions  for  new 
ideas — has  upon  imagination.  Imagination  clothed  in  "locutions" 
instead  of  in  its  natural  colors  of  each  moment,  looks  like  a  butterfly 
which  would,  if  he  could,  re-enter  the  cast-off  skin  of  another 
lepidoptere's  chrysalis. 

/.  The  efforts  of  the  best  schools  I  have  named,  tend  to 
accomplish  this  evolution  in  teaching  which  was  prepared  in  the 
school  for  idiots.  This  origin  throws  a  light  on  the  processes  here 
advocated  and  described.  Children  (idiots)  having  no  ideas,  were 
made  to  have  some,  by  the  physiological  rectification  of  the  doors 
and  windows  of  perceptions ;  having  no  useful  activity,  they  were 
given  some  by  training  their  tactile  and  muscular  senses,  etc. ;  and 
even  images  worked  in  them  desires,  and  operations  of  the  imagin- 
ation. 

But  the  finest  results  of  the  training  of  imagination  by  the 
physiological  method — obtained  to  a  limited  extent  with  idiots- 
obtainable  to  an  illimited  and  even  unsuspected  extent  with  all  other 
children,  is  the  power  given  to  a  healthy  imagination  to  eliminate 
the  vicious  images,  which,  once  formed,  would  become  almost  irre- 
sistible incentives  to  degraded  habits,  and  to  cultivate  the  faculty  of 
selecting  the  best  models,  of  idealizing  and  of  realizing  them  in  their 
daily  work,  and  in  their  life  high  or  low,  as  the  artist  tries  to  realize 
his  ideal  of  the  beautiful. 

Is  not  man,  after  all,  working  at  the  highest  object  of  art, 
when  he  strives  to  bring  his  own  self  to  the  highest  standard  of  man- 
hood attainable  by  his  imagination  ?  When  the  ancients  had  realized 
this  type,  they  made  it  one  of  their  gods ;  let  us  realize  it  in  making 
all  our  children  men. 

It  is  by  the  exercise  of  this  function  of  receiving  impressions 
at  the  windows  of  the  senses,  and  of  returning  them  idealized  at  the 
door  of  the  organs  of  execution,  that  we  owe  the  "faculty",  of  cre- 
ating what  must,  therefore  will  be.  It  is  so  that,  froin  the  "rap- 
prochement" or  the  materials,  good  or  bad,  collected  during  a  long 
pilgrimage,  have  been  formed  these  ideas  which  demand  their  ad- 
mission in  real  life. 

To  give  to  this  ideal  a  cohesion  which  will  bring  it  nearer  real- 
ization, I  will  neglect  points  of  importance,  but  of  less  general  in- 
terest, to  concentrate  the  attention  on  three  terminal  considerations  : 
the  school  organized  physiologically,  the  scholar,  and  the  teacher. 


182  - 


CHAPTER  VI. 
School  Organization. 

84.— a.  As  the  child  is  the  out-growth  of  the  infant,  so  the 
physiological  primary  school  must  be  an  extension  of  the  infantile 
experimental  field  of  life,  equally  misnamed  "school"  or  "kinder- 
garten," smce  his  school  is  wherever  he  can  touch,  hear,  and  see, 
and  what  he  can  seize  of  the  world  is  his  garden.  This  view  is 
partaken  by  the  best  judges,  and  the  "Synoptical  Table"  of  Madame 
de  Portugall,  establishing  the  "filiation  of  the  new  primary  school 
from  the  kindergarten,"  has  been  justly  rewarded  by  the  jury  of  the 
Universal  Exhibition  of  Paris,  1878. 

The  same  idea  had  been  advocated  for  other  schools,  but  it 
often  meets  with  incompatibles.  A  connection,  sequence,  and  con- 
tinuity is  attainable  between  schools  which  proceed  physiologically, 
and  from  observation  ;  a  sort  of  broken  continuity  may  be  estab- 
lished between  the  curriculum  of  "the  A-b-c  and  authority  school" 
and  the  classical  programme  of  the  colleges  of  "memory  and  au- 
thority ;"  but  a  cross  connection  and  continuity  between  the  two 
systems,  at  any  point  of  their  course,  is  impossible,  because  those 
who  run  on  different  plans  can  never  meet. — I  do  not  say  that  col- 
leges will  not  be  carried  on  the  physiological  plan ;  I  hope  they  will. 
Till  then,  they  prepare  classes,  not  people. 

Though  nothing  represents  so  well  the  equality  taught  by  Con- 
tucius,  and  i  practiced  by  Jesus,  as  the  first  psle-mele  entrance  in  a 
public  school,  children  are  hardly  in,  than  want  and  social  arrange- 
ments knock  down  the  theories,  and  raise  differences  in  their  man- 
agement.— Some  children  o?it  du  pain  sur  la  planche^  others  must 
earn  their  daily  bread,  even  feed  their  infirm  or  vicious  parents. 
These  economical  conditions  of  the  children  affect  the  organization 
of  their  schools. 

b.  The  school  of  the  poorer  wards  and  manufacturing  districts 
— of  recent  origin — is  open  all  the  day  to  squads  of  children,  (in  the 
evening  to  adults,)  to  give  them,  in  turn,  two  hours  of  instruction  be- 
sides their  scanty  wages. 

c.  Then  the  proportion  of  labor  to  schooling  is  about  as  fol- 
lows :  In  Berlin,  children  must  stay  at  school  till  fourteen  years  of 
age,  and  few  under  that  age  are  found  in  the  factories. 

In  Paris,  there  is  no  compulsory  law  about  it ;  the  custom  is  to 


183  

keep  the  children  at  school  till  they  have  made  "leur  premiere 
communion,"  12  to  12^  years  old.  This  difference  at  the  very  best 
time  for  learning  would  suffice  to  explain  the  greater  average 
instruction  of  the  same  classes  in  Germany  and  in  France.  In  the 
country,  and  in  out-of-the-way  places,  things  may  be  a  good  deal 
worse.  I  cannot  tell  for  Germany,  but  in  France,  when  the  law 
ordered  two  hours  of  schooling,  the  masters  added  these  two  hours 
to  the  twelve  of  labor,  making  fourteen  of  nervous  tension,  witiiout 
relaxation,  for  children  under  14 ;  a  feat  which  barbarous  physiol- 
ogists never  equalled  in  their  exaction  of  neural  force  from  the 
frog's  leg.  In  England,  the  model  schools  of  this  class  are  admired 
for  the  beauty  of  their  mechanism  at  least,  in  Manchester,  Lancaster, 
and  Sheffield,  etc. ;  but  how  with  the  present  schooling  of  the  colliers, 
who  descend  the  shaft  of  death  more  bravely  than  Roman  gladiators 
entered  the  colosseum  ?  Better  school  hygiene  and  provisions  are 
made  for  them,  no  doubt,  than  in  time  of  the  report  of  Villermey 
(1843),  but  I  could  reach  them  only  by  hear- say. 

Turning  our  regard  toward  home,  we,  too,  have  laws  for  the 
education  and  protection  of  children  employed  in  manufactories. 
But  in  Pittsfield,  and  other  remote  places,  parents  are  given  to 
understand,  that,  if  they  claim  the  benefit  of  the  law,  their  children 
will  be  dismissed :  they  are  such  a  burden,  so  many  are  waitmg  for  the 
places,  etc.,  and  in  cities,  besides  the  protection  ®f  the  law,  they  have 
the  benevolent  societies.  But  the  societies  prefer  doing  show  work 
— or  rescuing  a  young,  promising  acrobat  from  rising  in  his  profession 
— to  protecting  the  children,  who  rival  the  Parisians  in  the  Petits 
Metiers  of  Mercer  street,  against  the  privation  of  school  and  the 
temptations  of  want. 

The  organization  of  that  school  in  its  interior  arrangements, 
curriculum,  and  close  relations  with  the  organizations  of  the  sur- 
rounding ateliers  and  manufactures,  will  be  a  creation  without 
analogy  in  the  past,  nor  similar  in  the  present,  owing  to  the  Ameri- 
can character.  But  if  the  urgent  besoin  of  such  institutions  is  not 
satisfied,  the  national  character  will  suffer  a  deterioration ;  our 
working  children  will  come  to  maturity,  moukied  in  the  vicious  and 
i  gnorant  types  of  Europe  ;  same  causes  producing  the  same  effects. 

d.  Those  who  live  under  a  lighter  pressure,  are  capable  of 
feeding  their  children  during  the  school  years,  provided  education 
includes  one  kind  of  apprenticeship,  and  return  them  to  their  family 
and  to  society  useful,  self-supporting  adolescents. 

It  is  but  lately  that  this  claim  of  the  middle  working  classes 
was  understood,  and  satisfied  by  the  adjunction,  to  the  public  schools, 
of  ateliers  of  training  in  the  most  popular  labors.  These  mixed 
schools  differ  in  most  of  the  localities,  owing  to  the  local  demand 
for  skilled  mechanics.  They  differ,  also,  in  the  proportions  of  the 
work  to  the  study,  whose  average  may  be  estimated  as  follows : 


184 


For  Children 

Work 

Hours. 

School 

Hours. 

Before  10  years 

or 

Industrial 

Occupations. 

2 
3 
4 
6 
8 

Training 

or 

Drill. 

5 

10—12 

4 

12—14 

4 

14 — 16 

2 

After  16 

2 

The  municipal  school  of  Havre,  timed  somewhat  differently,  is 
one  of  the  best.  Having  witnessed  its  beginnings  in  1873,  and  its 
progress  six  years  later,  1  can  vouch  for  its  progress  and  usefulness. 
It  has  a  capacity  of  300  pupils,  applications  for  twice  as  many,  and 
their  services  are  secured  by  shrewd  patrons  one  year  before  the 
completion  of  their  training.  I  have  seen  them  at  the  desk,  the 
blackboard,  the  bench,  and  the  anvil,  and  prefer  their  looks,  man- 
ners, and  general  behavior  to  the  corresponding  externals  of 
"collegiens." 

e.  The  same  need  of  skilled  labor,  felt  by  the  state  as  by  the 
families,  has  caused  the  creation  of  schools  exclusive,  not  so  much 
in  their  curriculum,  as  in  the  necessary  or  invidious  sorting  of  the 
pupils.  These  institutions  are  reformatories  for  the  vicious,  or  con- 
cessions to  the  low  prejudices  which  cast  away  colored  people, 
Chinese,  Jews,  etc.  It  is  not  of  my  province  to  describe  or  judge 
them, — though  some  are  interesting,  as  Mettray  for  juvenile  delin- 
quents, and  Hampton  for  men  of  color,  etc., — but  to  warn  against  the 
advantage  the  communists  of  the  most  dangerous  class  have  taken 
to  proffer  their  services,  that  is,  to  extend  their  "moeurs"  and  morals 
over  a  large  area  of  nations. 

/.  On  many  pleas !  The  lone  position  of  children  left  without 
a  family,  timely  advice,  shelter,  and  resources,  already  branded  by 
justice  before  they  could  comprehend  the  social  why  ;  the  necessity 
for  those  way-led  children  of  reformation ;  for  all  of  education,  and  par- 
ticularly of  the  training  of  their  working  functions ;  the  faithlessness  of 
the  masters  who  use  their  apprentices  as  servants ;  and  the  dereHction 
of  the  practical  training  by  those  engaged  in  public  instruction, — 
such  are  the  causes  and  pretexts  of  the  interference  of  religious  com- 
monalties in  education  and  training  matters. 

g.  Midway  between  the  family,  the  school,  the  shops,  and  the 
commonwealth,  they  have  opened,  about  1840,  places  called  in 
France  Ecoles  d'apprefitis,  Ouvroires,  and  assumed  the  direction  of 
various  reformatories  which  correspond,  in  essence  but  not  in  inten- 
tion, to  an  actual  necessity.  They  are  im  besoin  real  et  incontestable, 
said  M.  de  Salvandy  in  his  Report  on  the  condition  of  primary  in- 
struction in  1843.  However,  the  immoral  tendency  and  disorganiz- 
ing plans  of  these  communistic  traps  did  not  escape  the  foresight 


185  

of  that  honestly  retrograde  minister,  who  added,  directly,  in  his  par- 
liamentary but  significant  language  :  ^'■Mais  il  ne  faiidrait  pas  que 
ces  etablissements  tinssent  lieu  d'ecole^  la  oh  une  veritable  ecole  est  pos- 
sible, lis  doivent  done  etre  soutemis  et  encourages  avec  discernemefit, 
taniut  comme  une  ressource  auxiliaire,  tantut  cornme  un  ache  mi  fie  me  nt 
vers  r organisation  plus  complete  de  Penseignemefit.  Since  these  warn- 
ings, (which  show,  by  the  by,  that  it  is  not  original  with  us  to  con- 
sider this  question  as  endosmic  to  that  of  education,  unavoidable 
because  it  has  made  itself  inevitable) : 

h.  The  communistic  schools  have  been  encouraged,  not  with  the 
discernment  recommended  by  the  Secretary  of  Public  Instruction  of 
1843,  nor,  as  he  formally  said,  "as  a  transitory  measure  till  public  in- 
struction should  be  fully  organized,"  but  till  the  religious  communists 
have  become,  in  Europe,  and  America  as  well,  the  educational  evil 
foreseen  by  Salvandy.  Deadly  mistletoe  on  the  devoted  oak. 
France  and  Belgium  have  opened  their  eyes  on  the  sore  {1879) 
rather  late.  England  and  this  country  do  not  dare  to  look  at  it,  and 
hide  the  ^'-ulcere  honteux'^  under  cover  of  their  free  institutions, 
which  paralyzes  before  destroying  them. 

Teaching  is  evidently  the  label  of  their  aim.  The  instruction 
they  give  is  inferior,  and  degraded  by  historical  and  moral  lies.  Their 
training  is  the  means  of  making  children  produce,  without  compen- 
sation, that  which  the  "communaute"  sells  at  a  low  price;  to  put 
down  the  value  of  labor,  and  keep  both  parents  and  children  in  sub- 
jection ;  habituating  them,  from  infancy,  to  the  conventual  forms  of 
communism, — the  only  communism  to  be  dreaded,  because,  inces- 
santly acquiring,  never  parting  with  a  mite,  it  husbands  its  untold 
treasure  to  feed  or  starve  the  masses,  in  order  to  be  able  to  throw 
them  one  way  or  another  in  the  scale  of  events  :  just  the  dread  of 
Salvandy  and  the  menace  of  Manning. 

/.  Since  I  pointed  out  these  forerunners  in  the  first  edition  of 
this  Report,  public  opinion  has  shaken  off  its  indifference,  and,  among 
other  cities,  Philadelphia  is  planning  a  school  with  shops  like  the  one 
of  Havre.  Unfortunately,  few  people  here  realize  yet  the  want  of 
our  society  to  elevate  the  masses  as  rapidly  as  possible  to  a  high 
point  of  intellectual  capacity  and  of  executive  ability,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  perils  which  old  Girard  tried  to  avoid  when  he 
wrote  on  the  corner-stone  of  his  munificent  endowment  to  the  or- 
phans :  The  school  to  educate,  the  church  or  mosque  to  teach  re- 
ligion, the  kitchen  to  learn  cookery,  etc. 

To  Salvandy  belongs  the  honor  of  having  officially  said  that 
the  teaching  of  the  people  needs  to  be  "organized,"  and  we  add, 
not  upon  the  basis  of  governmental  or  religious  authority,  but  upon 
a  far-seeing  combination  of  the  principles  of  physiology  with  the 
dearest  besoins  of  man  :   the  family,  the  nation,  and  humanity. 


186 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Sex  in  Education. 

85.  From  this  standpoint,  a  question  precedent  over  the  others 
is  that  of  Sex  in  Education.  It  covers,  perhaps,  as  much  ground  as 
Labor  in  the  School.  I  will  consider  it  here  in  regard  to  the  re- 
union of  the  sexes  in  the  same  class,  school,  etc. 

a.  When  a  society  which  we  have  not  equalled  in  many 
respects,  was  struggling  against  the  invasions  of  the  barbarians,  and 
against  its  own  vices — different,  not  worse,  less  mean  than  ours, — 
the  desintegrating  plan  of  the  founder  of  monastic  life  in  Upper 
Egypt  had  ripened.  Antoine  was  old  when  the  two  fellow-students 
and  antagonists  of  JuHen,  Basile  and  Gregoire,  and  a  little  later 
Chrisostome,  conferred  with  the  crafty  octogenarian  upon  the  exten- 
sion of  his  pet  scheme  to  the  whole  empire.  This  object  of  their 
conferences  can  hardly  be  called  hypothetic  or  secret,  since,  on 
their  return  from  the  Thebais,  Basil  organized  the  convent-schools 
and  shut-up  schools  for  the  separation  of  the  sexes  from  each  other, 
and  from  the  world.  Gregoire  supported  the  plan,  and  John,  from 
Sainte  Sophia  Basilic,  and  with  his  bouche  d'or,  ordered  the  parents 
to  put  their  children  in  these  communistic  schools  for  ten  years  or 
more, — whence  they  came  no  more  citizens,  semen  aris. 

b.  One  can  understand  how — with  the  means  of  communica- 
tion the  church  had  perfected  for  its  propaganda,  and  still  uses 
— the  next  generation  could  have  been,  by  these  means  and  an 
energetic  catechisation,  so  educated  as  to  remain  insensible  to  the 
slaughter  of  Hyppatia  in  a  church  by  Peter,  the  reader  of  the 
gospel  for  Cyril,  and  their  children,  indifferent  to  the  treason  of  the 
bishops  at  the  frontier  of  Thrace,  Pannony,  Gaule-Belgique,  etc.j  to 
the  invasion  and  pollution  of  Constantinople  by  the  monks  of  Mace- 
donius,  and  to  their  election  to  the  empire  of  Justin,  "who  could 
not  read,"  on  condition  that  he  would  kill  as  many  heretics  and  Jews 
as  he  could,  which  he  did. 

Useless  to  follow  the  same  plan  of  education  which  separates 
the  sexes  and  the  young  from  the  world,  through  the  ages — which 
would  look  more  horrible,  were  they  not  so  dark — when  we  have 
the  soul-sinking  spectacle  of  France,  the  last  country  laid  bare  and 
bleeding,  as  a  punishment  for  having  given  her  girls  to  be  educated 
without  natural  passions,  and  her  boys  without  civil  virtues,  both 


vowed   to   obey  the   craft  which  has,  perhaps,  destroyed  as  many 
societies  as  the  last  diluvium. 

Some  may  say  :  What  is  that  to  us  Americans  ?  Anybody  con- 
versant with  the  history  of  the  ideas  of  the  last  25  years,  knows  what 
influence  the  separate  and  conventual  education  of  the  sexes  has 
had  to  weaken  the  partriotic  heart  during  our  internal  divisions,  and 
how  near  these  "educators"  were  from  putting  the  weight  of  their 
millions,  and  of  their  sworn  subjects,  nominally  citizens,  in  the  scale 
opposed  to  the  continuity  of  this  Republic.  Indeed,  from  Mexico 
to  New  York,  and  from  thence  to  Montreal,  their  train  of  gun- 
powder was  continuous,  and  had  not  Farragut  broken  it  at  New 
Orleans,  who  knows  ? 

c.  But  the  same  subject  calls  for  another  order  of  considerations, 
more  directly  educational,  and  physiological. 

The  fashionable  and  official  society  of  the  4th  and  5th  centur- 
ies— to  make  it.  short,  I  let  the  reader  search  for  the  difterences 
between  these  societies  and  our — was  eating  the  produces  of  labor 
so  fast  as  to  leave  nothing,  not  only  for  the  working  and  disgusted- 
of-working  classes,  but  even  for  the  once  well-to-do  land-owners 
(Orosius).  The  gambling  of  the  factions  for  power,  that  is  for  the 
perception,  expenditure  and  stealing  of  the  taxes,  was  so  desperate 
that  the  rich  of  to-day  was  beggared  to-morrow,  like  Belisarius;  the 
votes  of  the  senators  were  bought  by  the  piece,  or  by  the  job,  and 
the  vilest  services  were  paid  by  the  giving  away  of  military  roads,  etc. 
Adding  to  these  causes  of  uncertainty  the  certainty  of  invasions  and 
of  home  dissensions, — the  women  being  converted  and  the  husband 
perverted,  or  the  reverse, — giving  the  children  but  the  choice 
between  a  pagan  and  a  Christian  hell.  No  wonder  they  would  not 
object  to  board  in  a  convent  painted  for  outsiders  ^'■couleur  de  rose."" 

d.  But  to  what  amounted  this  great  effort  at  regeneration 
conceived  by  an  intense  will,  and  carried  by  a  concourse  of  talent 
supported  by  a  power  as  shall  never  again  work  together  for  the 
same  cause?  It  failed  among  the  anguishes  and  monstrosities  it  had 
created.  But  no ;  there  is  no  failure  wherefrom  a  progress  issues. 
That  is,  we  never  pay  too  dear  to  learr^,  provided  we  profit  by  the 
lesson. 

The  lesson  was  this  : 

After  three  centuries  of  persecution,  the  young  men  whose 
family,  oftenest  their  mothers,  had  suffered  for  the  faith,  seated 
Christianity  on  the  throne,  with  carte  blanche  to  apply  their  theories 
to  society.  Aware  of  the  threatened  reaction  whose  chief  had 
been  their  own  class-mate,  now  heir  to  the  crown,  they  conceived 
that  to  make  the  revolution  last,  they  needed  to  win  the  next  genera- 
tion by  a  coup  de  fnain  which  could  be  accomplished  only  by  the 
enforcement  of  a  "New  Education."  Such  was  the  plan  of  Gre- 
goire,  communistic  in  regard  to   the  society,  separatist  in  regard  to 

(21) 


188 

the  sexes,  a  peristyle  to  the  new  temple,  ideal  or  Utopia,  which  Au- 
gustin  describes  as  "the  city  of  God." 

This  plan  succeeded  to  withstand  the  hurricane  raised  by  Jul- 
ianus,  but  left,  ever  since,  among  men  the  leaven  of  all  discords,  com- 
munism, and  the  seed  of  all  cowardices,  the  habits  and  tendencies,  or 
natural  reactions  of  an  unisexual  education.  It  is  a  fact  that  the 
most  monstrous  criminals,  and  the  most  radical  communists,  as 
Savonarola  and  Chabot,  had  been  educated  and  kept  in  convents, 
and  that  the  grandes  coquines  of  modern  history  came  out  of  con- 
ventual schools,  guided  by  their  "spiritual"  directors,  to  the  unlaw- 
ful conquest  of  the  world.  When  the  sexes  are  separated,  the  lesser 
peril  is  in  their  breaking  through  the  fence,  which,  being  a  defence, 
is  an  invitation  for  the  spirited  young  colts. — For  our  young  ones, 
when  the  impossible  is  the  rule,  they  have  but  one  alternative, 
hypocrisy  or  effrontery. 

e.  Be  praised  this  nation  !  for  not  having  yet  surrendered  its 
schools  to  this  upas-like  influence ;  for  having  demonstrated,  in  the 
exhibitions  of  Vienna,  Philadelphia,  and  Paris,  the  doubted  feasi- 
bility, the  naturalness  and  moraHty,  the  advantages  and  power  of 
co-education  at  all  degrees  and  ages.  But,  say  the  enemies  of  co-edu- 
cation, do  you  want  women  to  become  masculine?  Do  not  be  afraid 
of  that :  the  more  educated,  the  more  refined.  Above  that  question 
of  form,  we  do  not  know  what  truly  educated  women  (I  mean  better 
educated  than  we  have  been)  will  be  capable  of;  never  mind,  they 
will  tell.  We  can  only  imagine  that, — as  by  adding  one  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  to  a  previous  capital  of  one  hundred  millions,  a 
bank  can  more  than  quadruple  its  operations, — by  adding  one 
hundred  millions  of  educated  women  to  one  hundred  millions  of 
educated  men,  this  nation,  which  will  soon  be  two  hundred  million 
strong, — will  more  than  double  its  powers  of  civilization,  production, 
art,  and  happiness. 

Though  the  pretended  "  immorality"  of  free  schools  can  never 
be  so  rotten  as  the  "  morality"  of  the  isolating  schools,  the  former 
is  made  the  bug-bear.  The  American  school,  sure  that  it  is  right, 
exercises  a  silent  vigilance  on  these  matters ;  acting  on  the  principle 
that  the  less  said  the  better,  the  less  we  make  the  children  notice 
their  difference,  the  less  they  feel  it,  and  the  later  it  becomes  im- 
portune. Acting  on  this  psychological  plan,  our  public  schools 
have  educated  the  sexes  just  as  they  are  made,  side  by  side,  and  as 
they  are  designed  to  live  in  sincerity  and  purity, — notwithstanding 
the  unfortunate  exceptions  who,  succumbing  to  the  temptations  of 
liberty,  would  fall  lower  from  the  barriers  of  restraint.  Besides,  as 
long  as  Uncle  Sam  stands  by  his  daughters  and  their  babies, — instead 
of  casting  them  away  as  others  do, — the  family,  with  its  Republican 
superstructure,  is  safe.  Accordingly,  in  the  practice  of  our  free- 
school  system,  under  the  apparent  medley  of  girls  and  boys,  order 


189  

rules,  and  vigilance  is  awake  in  our  schools.  There  are  different 
times  and  avenues  for  the  entrance  and  exit,  and  a  separate  aisle 
in  the  school-rooms  for  each  sex ;  besides  an  imperceptible  watch- 
ing from  school  to  home,  and  other  local  precautions,  which  render 
the  practice  of  this  great  principle,  "co-education,"  as  safe  as  wisdom 
can  make  anything,  a  model  for  other  Nations. 

/.  Co-education  does  not  affect  the  curriculum  of  the  physiolog- 
ical public  school.  In  the  primary  departments,  they  are  all  children, 
equally  needmg  exercise,  pure  air,  sun,  training  of  their  senses,  voice, 
articulation,  and  winning  intonations ;  capacity  for  attention,  de- 
duction, and  induction,  foresight.  Both  sexes  must  aquire  a  rich 
and  ready  dictionary,  a  pure,  practical  grammar,  and  the  manual 
dexterity  of  expressing  their  sensible  ideas  graphically,  plastically, 
constructively,  even  destructively  when  occasion  requires.  No 
more  about  the  matters  of  instruction,  only  be  sure  that  one  educa- 
tional or  drill  excursion,  if  no  more,  will  be  made  every  week. 

g.  I  have  touched,  several  times,  the  question  of  "  timing" 
the  exercises,  never  treated  it  in  absolute  terms,  because,  when  it 
came  out,  it  was  about  special  schools ;  and  even  for  the  common 
school  itself,  the  "timing"  somewhat  depends  on  the  season,  the 
age  of  the  pupils,  the  mattei:s  to  be  attended  to.  Therefore  I  will 
say,  in  the  less  binding  terms,  that  the  tuition  of  two  hours  or  more 
now  exacted  from  children  during  their  growth,  is  ferociously  anti- 
physiological  ;  that  the  half-hour  rotary  system  of  the  "  school  for 
feeble-minded  children"  of  Syracuse  would  not  be  too  short  if  part 
of  these  30  minutes  were  not  employed  in  forming  and  breaking  the 
groups.  Therefore  I  am  in  favor  of  the  45  minutes'  session  of  the 
Ecole  Modele  of  Brussels,  invariably  followed  by  15  minutes  of  ab- 
solute recreation.  But  then,  as  there,  every  class-room  must  open 
on  the  "  preau,"  and  be  vacated  in  less  than  one  minute.  (That 
"  preau"  is  covered,  and  serves  as  a  play- ground  when  it  rains,  for 
gymnastics,  choral  singing,  etc.) 


190 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  Teacher. 

S6.  Sex  of  the  Teachers,  a.  When  the  common  education 
and  the  general  training  of  the  functions  is  over,  young  men  go  out 
of  school  to  learn  a  trade,  an  art,  or  a  liberal  profession.  Some 
girls  do  the  same,  but  most  of  them  remain,  or  must  stay  at  home 
or  at  school,  to  learn  the  great  art,  which  is  to  be  their  profession, 
of  educating  children.  Therefore,  if  one  sex  needs  more  education 
(I  do  not  say  information)  than  the  other,  it  is  the  woman;  because, 
when  /i€  is  buying,  selling,  manufacturing,  etc.,  s/ie  will  have  to  edu- 
cate her  children,  after  having  educated  those  of  others.  So,  at  least, 
the  problem  of  "who  ought  to  teach  our  children"  is,  or  ought  to 
be,  viewed  and  worked  out  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

d.  But  this  art  is  no  more  the  simple  affair  it  used  to  be,  than 
our  grandmother's  spinning-wheel  is  adequate  to  make  the  thread 
needed  to-day.  The  present  management  of  children  demands  from 
women,  besides  the  matters  of  the  intellectual  and  physiological 
curriculum,  an  extensive  knowledge  of  hygiene,  and  a  limited  but 
clear  idea  of  the  legislation,  history,  and  philosophy  of  their  sex,  and 
of  childhood.  They  ought  to  qualify  on  these  points,  but  they  do 
not  even  on  the  elements  of  practical  pedagogy,  as  the  value  of 
attitudes,  gestures,  physiognomy,  and  voice,  in  teaching.  I  have 
been  told  that  there  is  no  such  training  for  future  teachers  in  a  famed 
normal  school. 

The  same  training  may  be  imperfectly  obtained,  as  it  is  in  the 
municipal  schools  of  Paris,  by  giving  each  teacher  an  assistant  (just 
graduated).  When  the  former  speaks  ex  caifkedra,  the  latter  main- 
tains order,  listens,  and  sees,  is  even  ready  to  take  the  chair  when  it 
becomes  unexpectedly  vacant.  However,  acknowledging  these  fail- 
ings, and  a  few  more  to  add  to  make  the  dozen,  this  is  the  second 
and  higher  glory  of  the  American  school,  to  have  more  female 
teachers  than  any  other  nation. 

New  York  City  has  above  two  thousand  in  the  primary  and 
grammar  departments  alone ;  there  are  above  one  hundred  thousand 
of  them  in  the  Republic. 


191  

c.  Their  work  is  the  least  remunerative,  and  the  hardest  by 
the  expense  of  vitality  it  entails,  and,  worse  than  that,  it  has  riveted 
upon  them  the  evil  eye  of  the  enemy  of  free  republican  schools. 
These  scheming  men  make  no  mistake ;  they  know  that,  with  de- 
luded women  in  their  sleeves,  they  can  cheat  mankind  as  with 
trumped  cards ;  and  that,  with  enlightened  mothers  and  teachers, 
men  can  scorn  the  deceits' of  the  supernaturalists. 

That  is  why  everything  that  could  render  the  position  of  teacher 
untenable  for  worthy  women  has  been  done ;  from  shortening,  dis- 
puting, suspending  their  salary,  to  making  their  situation  depend 
on  the  good-will  (?)  of  these  officials  who,  in  New  York  for  in- 
stance, are  recognized  several  miles  off  by  their  mandibles  when 
they  come  preying  on  the  city  treasury.  Such  are  the  satellites  of 
the  clericals,  whose  brutality  is  a  mask  for  the  perfidy  of  their  leaders. 
So  that  he  who  threatens  England  with  civil  war,  who  presses  on 
Belgium  as  a  nightmare,  whom  divided  France  hates  and  obeys, 
who  restores  the  inquisition  and  its  schools  in  Spain,  and  destroys 
books  m  Canada  as  it  did  in  Alexandria,  is  the  same  one  who 
wants  to  take  possession  of  our  schools  in  the  name  of  Liberty. 

d.  To  defend  their  countries,  the  Austrian,  the  Frenchman, 
the  Prussian,  the  Russian  keep  under  arms,  in  idleness,  more  than 
500,000  young  men.  To  protect  ours  against  its  only  enemy,  bigoted 
ignorance,  we  must  have  an  army  of  500,000  girls  teaching  our 
children,  in  squads  of  twenty,  and  preparing  themselves  for  the  du- 
ties of  motherhood — so  much  higher  than  those  of  paternity.  Women 
— school  and  family  educators — barriers  against  communism.  Let  us 
take  heed.  Guizot,  Cousin,  Villemain,  and  afterward  Carnot,  Duruy, 
and  Jules  Simon,  tried  in  vain  to  protect  an  admirable  body  of 
teachers  from  the  same  hatred  embodied  in  de  Falloux.  Their  pru- 
dence was  set  at  naught,  the  best  teachers  France  ever  had  were 
shot,  transported,  starved;  and  we  have  seen  the  first  result,  only 
the  first.     These  are  days  of  respite. — Let  us  reflect. 

When  crossing  the  pathless  forest  of  an  Indiana  bottom,  or 
climbing  some  declivity  in  the  Adirondacks,  I  have  seen  giant  trees 
fall  with  a  deep,  sorrowful  groan.  It  was  not  under  the  cumulative 
pressure  of  northwestern  waves,  nor  from  the  shock  of  some 
noble  animal ;  they  were  honey-combed  by  imperceptible  things 
without  a  name  :     Thus  fall  the  Empires. 

Practically,  the  national  army  of  teachers  would  be  composed 
of  almost  all  the  girls  who,  having  gone  through  the  curriculum, 
must  learn  the  management  of  children,  and  the  accessories  thereto, 
till  they  leave,  on  the  call  of  their  physiological  functions.  Corneha, 
mother  of  the  Gracchi,  and  Aurelia,  mother  of  Augustus  Caesar,  had 
been  governesses  of  other  women's  children  before  their  own  sons 
were  born. 

Those  who  feel  a  stronger  attachment  for  the  school  remain  at 


192  

their  post,  an  invaluable  old  guard ; — guardians,  indeed,  of  the  disci- 
pline, traditions,  and  honor  of  their  calling.  They  form,  with  a  certain 
number  of  learned  professors,  the  staff  whence  are  drawn  the  super- 
ior officers  of  the  schools,  like  Marie  Pape-Carpentier,  Toussaint,  of 
Paris,  de  Portugall,  of  Geneva,  Mary  West,  of  Illinois.  Besides 
these  ranks  and  staffs  are  the  teachers  of  special  matters,  in  constant 
or  periodical  attendance,  those  who  train  the  children,  in  their  ex- 
cursions, to  form,  on  the  ground,  figures  as  those  made  of  blocks,  or 
by  live-soldiers ;  those  who  teach  botany  with  plants,  mineralogy 
with  minerals,  biology  with  fossils,  anatomy  with  parts  of  the  body, 
waiting  for  the  squads  of  children  in  the  garden-schools,  or  mu- 
seums ;  without  omitting  the  occasional  teachers  who,  like  Huxley  and 
Proctor,  cannot  or  must  not  pass  through  a  country  without  leaving 
to  the  young  the  impression  of  their  face,  beside  the  exposition  of 
their  new  idea :  a  provocation  to  live  the  life  of  thoughts. 

Soon,  almost  a  million  of  women  will  be  engaged  in  educating 

children.     What  an  expense ! But  how  much  more  costly  is  it  to 

feed  twenty,  forty  millions  without  a  mind  educated,  nor  hands 
skilled  to  labor  ?  And  what  it  costs  to  deprive  the  future  generations 
of  the  progressive  development  which  accrues  from  age  to  ages  by 
the  atavism  of  intellectuality The  converse  being  true  of  im- 
becility. 

e.  And  what  a  healthy  feeling  one  experiences — wearing 
away  his  life  to  preach  this  solidarity  in  education,  not  only  of  all 
the  men  of  one  generation,  but  of  all  the  generations  to  come. — 
The  author  of  the  Lettres  Provinciales  gave  the  same  warning :  "  La 
suite  des  homfnes  doit  etre  cofisideree  comme  un  meme  homine  qui  sub- 
sists toujour s  et  qui  apprend  continuellementy  For  those  who  do 
not  understand  French  :  The  successive  generations  of  men  ought 
to  be  considered  as  a  single  man,  who  ever  lives,  and  learns  inces- 
santly.    Pascal,  forgive  me  ! 


193 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  School  Director. 

87.  But  who  will  direct  this  army?  Without  a  general,  it  is  but 
a  crowd,  and  without  a  plan,  what  is  a  chief? 

a.  The  chief  officer  of  the  educational  movement  must  be  the 
person  (without  regard  to  sex)  who  joins  to  the  best  understanding 
of  the  psycho-physiological  development  of  youth  the  clearer  view 
of  the  tendencies  of  his  country.  His  function  would  correspond 
exactly  to  those  of  "  Grand  Master  of  the  University,"  with  this  dif- 
ference in  the  object :  that  the  latter  was  chief  keeper  of  immobility, 
and  He  will  be  the  chief  leader  of  the  progressive  movement.  In 
this  station,  the  best  man  of  yesterday  would  likely  be  the  worse  to- 
morrow, because  of  the  rapid  changes  our  society  undergoes  at  each 
generation.  Another  difference  would  result  from  the  unprecedented 
vastness  of  his  functions.  The  Amyot,  Rollin,  Monge,  de  Fontane, 
d'Hermopolis,  Cousin,  even  Simon  led  only  a  part  of  one  nation 
through  the  oscillations  and  vacillations  which  ended  in  ruin ;  but 
the  next  master  of  the  school  will  really  be  the  leader  of  whole 
Jiations  toward  their  highest  or  lowest  destinies.  This  leader  of  edu- 
cation— supposing  him  to  be  environed  by  the  best  special  advisors 
(like  a  national  council  of  education),  and  represented  at  all  the  de- 
grees by  persons  of  abilities  and  views  akin  to  his  own, — must  be, 
above  all,  a  physiologist,  versed  in  social  and  economic  sciences, 
arts,  and  literature. 

b.  Long  ago,  a  man  who  had  to  leave  his  country  in  order  to 
be  able  to  tell  freely  the  truth,  said  :  '■''S'il  est  possible  de  perfection- 
ner  Vespece  humaine,  c'est  dans  la  medecine  quHl  faut  en  chercher  les 
moyensy  This  distant  foresight  of  Descartes  became  a  familiar 
thought  of  the  apostles  of  education,  and  Miss  Brackett  said,  some 
years  ago,  as  in  an  unconscious  soliloquy:  "I  sometimes  think  that 
a  the  medical  and  educational  professions  could  be  induced  to  work 
together,  they  might  reform  the  world."  The  prophetess  was  right 
in  so  far,  that  the  two  professions  will  work  together  the  needed  ref- 
ormation when  they  will  be  represented  in  the  same  brain,  at  the 
head  of  the  national  education ;  by  Virchow  in   Prussia,  Vulpian, 


194 

Broca,  Paul  Best,  or  Ranvier  in  France,  etc.  This  Republic  cannot 
rest  her  security  on  lesser  men,  and  must  tell  to  their  like  what 
Philip  of  Macedonia  wrote  to  Aristoteles  the  moment  Alexander 
was  born :  "Thou  living :  educated  and  instructed  by  thee,  my  son 
will  be  worthy  of  his  father  and  of  my  power. 

And  what  will  the  homologue  of  this  Archidtre  of  the  ancients, 
do  for  our  modern  society  ?     Let  us  see. 

'^%.  The  Scholar. — When  the  school  will  be  taught  by 
women,  and  controlled  by  physiologists,  a  child  will  not  enter  it  like 
cattle  the  coral,  being  only  counted  in. 

a.  In  the  perfect  elasticity  of  his  free  existence, — if  he  has  not 
been  taught  what  he  cannot  perceive  nor  comprehend ;  if  the  fair 
play  of  his  senses  and  movements  has  been  but  imperceptibly 
watched  and  corrected ;  if  his  ear  has  become  sensible  to  speech' 
through  its  music,  and  to  music  through  its  melodies ;  if  his  hand 
and  foot  are  nimble  and  sure ;  if  his  imagination  has  not  been  peo- 
pled with  monstrous  images;  if  he  is  familiar  with  human  sym- 
pathies, and  ignorant  of  the  cowardly  feelings  caused  by  subjection 
and  superstition, — his  movements  are  gracious,  his  sensations 
expressed  by  an  easy  countenance,  his  plays  have  gradually  become 
laborious,  and  from  the  early  morning  he  works  hard  at  something,, 
till  he  falls  asleep  on  the  knees  of  his  mother; — his  voice  tells  as 
much  by  its  intonations  as  by  v^^ords ;  though  his  vocabulary  is  not 
large,  it  is  select,  and  is  often  enriched  by  nugget-like  expressions  ; 
his  feelings  towards  his  kin  are  intense,  he  having,  from  the  first, 
learned  to  cry  or  to  laugh  when  the  bosom  of  his  mother  was  agi- 
tated by  sorrow  or  joy ;  and  he  is  correct  on  the  main  points  of 
right  or  wrong,  having  not  experienced  injustice;  only  for  fear  of 
doing  wrong,  he  will  sometimes  do  right  to  excess,  as  he  loves, — 
then  he  is  prepared  for  the  school — the  more  so  if  he  has  passed 
through  the  kindergarten. 

If,  on  the  contrary,  he  was  compressed,  imposed,  deprived,  re- 
fused the  joys  of  his  age,  the  more  he  needs  the  "New  School"  as- 
an  arbor  of  relaxation  and  expansion ;  let  both  enter,  let  all  come 
in,  and  receive  them  cheerfully.  But  do  not  touch  these  unknown 
quantities  of  vital  activity,  called  children,  before  you  have  taken 
the  bilan  of  the  forces  of  each ;  so  that,  what  can  be  spent,  and 
what  must  be  spared  of  his  vitality  or  caloricity  during  the  com- 
bustive  process  of  educational  labor,  might  be  measured  as  mathe- 
matically as  the  quantity  of  coal  to  run  an  engine. 

89. — Here  begins  the  function  of  the  physiological  manager  of 
the  school,  and  of  all  the  schools ;  speaking  for  one,  I  mean  all. — 
When  receiving  children  and  their  health-record  from  the  hand  of 
the  mother,  he  opens  the  balance-sheet  of  their  capabilities,  func- 
tions, and  power  of  endurance.  It  may  also  devolve  upon  him  to 
instruct  the  mothers  (as  he  ought  his  teachers)  in  the  art  of  observ-^ 


195 

ing  and  registering  the  vital  functions  of  children :  So  many 
mothers  being  without  real  education,  or  kept  in  religious  ignorance, 
or  inveterate  broadwayers  or  boulevardieres.  But  his  main  duty 
and  occupation  will  be  to  control  and  verify  the  observations  of  the 
mothers  and  teachers ;  to  deduce  from  them  the  consequences  im- 
portant for  the  training  and  the  future  of  the  pupils;  and  to  furnish 
the  general  statistics  of  the  country  with  the  physiological  elements 
of  the  local  statistics  nascent  under  his  control. 

After  filling  up  the  usual  questioning  about  family  traits  and  like- 
nesses, pre-natal  or  infancy  circumstances  and  accidents,  etc.,  coming 
to  the  present  status,  he  consid'ers  : 

The  complexion. 

The  age,  size,  and  weight,  separately  and  comparatively. 

The  general  dimensions  compared  to  those  of  the  head,  chest, 
and  limbs. 

The  abnormal  development  of  the  head  compared  to  that  of 
the  face. 

The  differences  of  the  two  sides  of  head,  body,  and  limbs. 

The  muscular  power  at  large;  do.  localized  and  tested  by 
dynamometers,  and  its  difference  on  both  sides. 

The  firmness  of  standing,  and  rectitude  of  the  diverse  modes 
of  locomotion. 

The  "qualities"  of  the  blood,  tested  by  globulimetry,  colori- 
metry,  chemical  and  microscopic  analysis. 

The  "movements"  of  the  blood,  timed  and  written  with  the 
sphymograph  at  the  heart,  the  two  wrists,  and  the  two  temporal  ar- 
teries, if  need  be. 

The  number  and  graphic  forms  of  the  breathing  in  repose  and 
after  exercises. 

The  general  temparature. 

Do.  compared  to  the  local,  and  particularly  to  that  of  the  ex- 
tremities. 

The  temperature  at  the  two  temples,  before  and  after  intellect- 
ual labor. 

The  excess  of  sugar,  albumen,  and  urea  from  the  blood  to  be 
tested. 

The  condition  of  the  senses  (and  of  the  sensations)  to  be 
thoroughly  investigated ;  mainly  that  of  the  audition,  which  determ- 
ines the  distance  from  the  teacher ;  and  of  the  vision,  whose  power 
of  accomodation  tells  what  types  the  child  must  read,  at  what  dis- 
tance from  the  light  and  demonstrations  he  must  stand. 

The  faculty  of  expressing  ideas  by  language,  drawing,  or  plastic 
forms ;  taste  for  music,  numbers,  mechanics,  travels ;  for  active  or 
sedentary  occupations,  for  sunny  or  dark  places. 

His  memory,  and  of  what  kind ;  of  words,  facts,  dates,  ideas^ 
which  ? be  precise. 


196  

His  temper,  sociability,  joviality  or  the  reverse;  thirst  and 
appetite,  influence  of  food  or  of  delay  in  feeding. 

His  previous  education,  and  what  he  gained  by  it. 

Some  of  these  points  are  accounted  for  7iormes  at  once,  others 
after  having  been  verified;  of  others,  the  norme  is  taken  from  the 
average  of  several  observations,  like  that  of  the  individual  pulse- 
beat,  or  of  the  breathing.  Others  have  to  be  repeated  periodically, 
as  every  month  for  the  weight,  and  every  three  months  for  the  com- 
parison of  weight  to  height ;  since,  if  a  child  lose  weight,  or  become 
taller  and  not  heavier,  or  even  lighter  (in  the  ordinary  period  of 
growth),  it  is  due  to  a  cause  which  must  be  found.  In  the  food, 
the  condition  of  the  appetite  and  mucous  membrane  will  tell;  in 
over-work,  the  eyes,  the  heat  at  the  base  of  the  brain  will  show, 
etc.  In  headache  from  crowded  dormitories  and  school-rooms, 
paleness;  in  all,  a  specific  disturbance  of  caloricity.  Other  observ- 
ations have  to  be  repeated  in  proportion  as  the  deviation  of  the 
norme  is  more  marked,  as  when  the  blood  is  very  poor  in  coloring 
matter ;  others,  like  the  temperature,  require  a  constant  watching, 
at,  least  by  the  mother  and  teacher  {see  "Manual  of  Thermometry 
for  Mothers,  Teachers,  Nurses,  etc."),  besides  the  control  of  the 
Keeper  of  the  vital  forces. 

In  time  of  epidemics,  the  temperature  is  to  be  watched  more 
closely,  because,  a  few  days  before  the  appearance  of  an  eruptive 
and  contagious  disease,  a  raise  of  at  least  i"^  C.  above  the  previous 
temperature  of  the  child  indicates  the  danger  for  his  fellows  from 
contact,  and  for  him  from  exposures.  The  same  test  by  the 
thermometer  cannot  be  dispensed  with  in  the  very  frequent  cases 
of  children  simulating  a  disease — which  a  normal  temperature  will 
deny, — or  dissimulating  a  disease — whose  abnormal  temperatures  af- 
ford the  demonstration, — the  Hes  of  children  notwithstanding. 

Therefore,  not  content  with  having  ascertained  the  condition 
of  the  children  at  the  beginning  of  each  course,  the  "Keeper  of  the 
ledger  of  the  vital  forces"  must  continue  to  record  the  vital  signs,  be- 
ing particularly  vigilant  about  those  whose  series  look  suspicious,  and 
draw  from  their  prognostical  reading  the  resolves  which  form  the 
physiological  government  of  the  school ;  ordering :  the  prevalence 
or  diminution  of  labor  of  one  or  more  kinds ;  increase  of  one  sens- 
ory training,  suppression  of  another;  more  plastic  or  drawing 
occupations,  oftener  to  the  garden-schools,  vocal  instead  of  silent 
studies,  aeration,  insolation,  or  the  reverse;  recom??iending :  tem- 
porary removal  from  school ;  advising :  difierent  or  better  food, 
distraction,  change  of  climate,  temporarily  or  for  life. 

In  this  report,  when  I  said  that  the  school  is  wherever  we  can 
learn  something,  I  was  the  narrow-minded  pupil  of  my  former 
masters. 

Do  we  not  see  clearly  now  that  the  school  is  wherever  we  can 
also  improve  our  health,  which  is  power  ? 


197  — ^ 

When  through  Europe,  in  quest  of  better  schools,  1  could  not 
look  without  envy  at  their  gardens  of  acclimatization  for  plants  and 
animals ;  and  I  could  not  help  thinking  that  if  we  treated  our 
sickly  children  as  they  do  the  eucalyptus  and  the  zebra,  how  many 
precious  lives  could  be  spared ;  besides  drying  up  for  our  posterity 
the  germ  of  hideous,  cavernous  consumption.  That  is  what  cer- 
tainly will  do  the  first  Keeper  of  the  vital  forces  of  the  nation  in 
organizing  gardens  of  human  acclimatization  in  Georgia,  on  the 
table-lands  of  the  Cumberland  mountains,  etc.  We  must  not  over- 
look the  more  general  foct  that,  in  husbanding  the  nervous,  muscu- 
lar, and  intellectual  forces  of  our  children  by  this  psycho-physio- 
logical mathematism,  none  of  these  forces  will  be  let  run  to  waste, 
but  the  children  will  have  enough  of  it  to  spend  in  labor,  in  growth, 
in  necessary  repairs  of  their  organism,  besides  more  in  store  to  spare 
for  an  emergency  like  sickness,  etc.  This  is  the  individual  view  of 
the  question;  but,  socially  considered,  not  only  these  latent  forces 
will  be  kept,  but,  being  mathematically  recorded,  will  be  entered  in 
the  statistics  of  the  nation,  who,  being  made  incessantly  conscious, 
by  these  reports,  ©f  her  muscular  and  neurotic  powers,  as  well  as  of 
the  capacities  and  capabilities  of  her  children,  will,  at  any  time,  know 
what  of  her  destinies  she  can  accomplish  with  her  forces  at  com- 
mand, or  which  to  postpone  till  she  has  developed  her  latent  forces 
by  a  system  of  education  directly  calculated  to  prepare  to-day  the 
men  needed  to-morrow.  When  Cousin  sounded  the  alarm  at  the 
sight  of  the  small  products  of  the  French  school,  he  would  have 
been  listened  to  if  comprehended,  and  comprehended  if  he  could 
have  vested  his  warning  in  the  language  of  physiological  mathemat- 
ism, and  said : 

Since  X  years,  per  globulimetry,  the  average  French  blood  has 
lost  so  many  red  corpuscles. 

Per  sphygmography,  the  same  blood  shows  more  abnormal  in- 
termittance. 

Per  thermometry,  the  elevation  of  temperature  after  labor  is 
higher  than  it  used  to  be,  showing  less  capacity  of  retention  of  calor. 

Per  spyrometry,  the  chest  of  the  Frenchman  expands  less  than 
the  German  by  X  ctm.,  causing  a  proportionate  loss  of  oxygenation 
and  X  more  frequent  breathings. 

Per  ophthalmoscopy,  so  many  more  cases  of  myopia. 

Per  dynamoemtry,  the  contractibility  of  the  muscles  has  lost  X 
kilgr.  of  its  power,  etc. 

That  is  the  report  the  French  needed  in  1840  in  order  to  avoid 
1870 ;  and  the  more  free  is  a  nation,  the  more  it  needs  such  warn- 
ing in  order  to  educate  in  itself  the  functions,  in  man  the  man. 


198 


CHAPTER  X. 

Conclusions. 

When  seeing,  in  the  international  exhibitions,  in  many  schools, 
and  in  the  press,  the  immense  efforts  made,  and  the  treasures  spent 
by  nations,  partisans,  and  sects  to  take  possession  of  the  child,  even  to 
influence  the  impressions  of  the  mother  before  he  is  born,  one  can- 
not fail  to  reflect  upon  the  nature  and  aim  of  education. 

Education  is  the  right  of  every  child,  the  duty  of  every  parent, 
the  bond  of  the  community.  The  feeling  which  binds  those  edu- 
cated together — more  subtle  than  electricity — is  nationality.  The 
right  of  a  society  upon  the  allegiance  of  a  child  rests  upon  his  hav- 
ing received  a  national  education  (the  other  advantages  accruing 
from  the  social  contact,  being  unintentional  toward  the  person,  are 
not  binding).  Moreover,  if  the  family  and  state  do  not  educate, 
the  foreigner — by  his  feeling,  at  least, — will ;  and  shall  make  strangers 
of  our  offspring.  Any  one  so  estranged  by  a  moral  kidnapping  who 
dare  act  the  citizen,  is  worse  than  Benedict  Arnold,  born  an  English 
subject,  and  traitor  only  to  a  nation  whose  nationality  was  not  yet 
generally  acknowledged.  But  now  this  Republic  is  not  only  a 
nadon,  it  is  a  parent  who  spends,  to  educate  its  children,  more  than 
any  other  five  nations  put  together.  Whence  the  touchmg  confi- 
dence of  the  Western  boy  singing,  "  Uncle  Sam  is  rich  enough  to 
give  us  all  a  farm."  Education  is  that  fruitful  farm,  and  Uncle  Sam, 
giving  it,  asks  no  other  question  but  this  to  himself,  "  how  can  I  give 
the  best  ?" 

That  is  the  conclusion  this  report  tends  to. 

Resume. — We  have  said  that  the  object  of  education  is  to  pre- 
pare the  children  for  the  work  which  will  be  demanded  of  them  as 
men.  The  general  drift  of  the  wants  differs  at  each  generation,  be- 
sides, the  work  is  so  varied  in  its  details  that  they  cannot  be  em- 
braced in  a  plan  of  general  training  and  education.  This  is  the  rea- 
son why,  transferring  our  observation  from  the  objective  to  the 
subjective,  we  have  demonstrated  that  if  the  commonwealth  can- 
not pre-educatc  in  all  kinds  of  work,  it  can,  for  all  kinds  of  work : 
[a)  train  all  the  organs  to  accomplish  their  functions  in  the  most 


199  

physiological  manner;  {If)  elevate  all  the  functions  which  are  under 
the  control  of  consciousness  to  the  rank  of  intellectual  capacities, 
and  make  them  concur  in  the  operations  of  the  mind  and  of  the 
will :  that  is  what  we  call  Physiological  Education. 

We  have  been  at  some  pains  to  gather  its  elements  from  the 
special  schools  for  idiots,  for  the  deaf-mutes,  from  the  kindergartens, 
and  from  the  worst  and  best  popular  schools,  and  to  compare  theni 
to  the  specimens  of  art  and  industry  periodically  exhibited,  in  order 
to  prove  what  relations  exist  between  the  training  and  the  working. 

Their  parallelism,  at  least,  is  manifest :  The  best  educated 
nations  produce  the  best  work.  Where  the  aristocracy  alone  is  edu- 
cated, there  are  a  few  works  of  magnitude,  and  little  of  private  indus- 
try ;  (Russia,  Valachia,  Roumania).  Where  money  does  everything, 
manufactures  and  automatic  products  are  abundant  and  cheap,  and 
the  people  attached  to  the  machines  are  very  low  in  education ; 
(England),  where,  however,  immense  progress  has  been  made,  since 
1873,  under  the  mental  leadership  of  Gladstone,  Mill,  Spencer,Carlyle, 
and  Huxley.  More  variety  of  products  is  the  result  of  more  varied 
instruction  in  the  working  classes  of  Belgium  and  France ;  but  there 
the  enemy  of  progress  holds  the  fort  against  its  aposdes  and  martyrs. 
The  industrial  prosperity  of  Switzerland  and  Holland  is  at  par  with 
their  general  education  :  and  even  between  China  and  Japan,  the 
superiority  of  arts  and  manufactures  is  on  the  side  of  the  latter, 
which  has  the  better  scnools.  If  this  inter-dependence  is  not  illusory, 
it  was  no  lost  time  to  search  through  these  exhibitions  for  the  prod- 
ucts, and  through  so  many  schools  for  the  schooling,  in  order  to 
set  up  this  truth  beyond  cavil  as  our  beacon.  With  it,  if  we  survey 
our  country  as  we  have  done  others,  we  find  that  in  unfettered 
America  more  work,  and,  sometimes,  better  work  has  been  done  in 
this  Republic  than  in  Europe  during  the  last  thirty  years,  but  that 
the  disintegrating  elements  of  civil  society  have  done  and  prepared 
its  dissolution  with  more  eftrontery — in  the  name  of  liberty — than 
anywhere  else. 

Here,  the  million  has  three  blessings :  free  land,  free  institutions, 
and  free  schools  ;  which  are  paralyzed  by  three  scourges :  ist.  The 
monopoly  of  the  best  lands  exacting  crushing  rent  for  it  before  any 
work  can  be  done  on  it.  2d.  The  corruption  of  legislatures — 
unsurpassed  by  any  female  prostitution — which  give  the  form  of  law 
to  instruments  of  spoliation  of  the  laborers  by  capitalists,  whose 
capital  is  their  impudence  astride  of  our  deposits.  3d.  The  com- 
munities which  take  in  their  schools  our  citizen-children,  and  turn 
them  subjects  of  the  papacy,  itself  a  tool  of  the  Jesuits'  scheme  of 
universal  communism. 

Against  these  odds,  the  working  people,  which,  after  all,  is  the 
nation,  if  not  the  society,  feeds  that  society  with  its  unproductive 
appendage  of  army,  navy,  office-holders  and  seekers,  money  and 


200  

paper  operators,  defalcators,  and  all  sorts  of  malefactors,  fashionable 
or  the  reverse. 

Under  this  immense  pressure,  the  American  people  have  worked, 
not  only  to  satiate  these  insatiable  classes,  to  satisfy  its  own  wants, 
and  to  keep  the  balance  of  trade  in  its  favor,  but  to  make  inven- 
tions and  discoveries  which  have  affected  the  economy  of  other  na- 
tions. Indeed,  in  arts  and  sciences,  the  American  stands  high;  in 
'  mechanism,  engineering,  architecture,  higher ;  and  amidst  this  hard- 
earned  prosperity,  one  thing  only  is  amiss:  it  is  the  finishing  touch, 
which  can  be  acquired  by  tradition — which  we  have  not ;  or  by 
training-schools,  which  we  must  have.  True,  the  latter  will  not  give, 
at  once,  the  thoroughness  of  the  former,  but  it  is  not  necessary  that 
it  should,  since  the  training  being  more  physiological,  and  the  tra- 
dition more  routiniere,  the  former  will  develop  an  originality  of  its 
own,  which,  under  the  name  of  Americanism,  is  already  acknowl- 
edged on  all  the  markets  as  soon  as  it  asserts  itself,  as  in  sewing 
machines,  cars,  commercial  and  railroad  architecture,  etc. 

It  is,  therefore,  of  the  utmost  importance  that  our  popular 
schools  cease  to  be  copies  (even  improved  copies)  of  the  -clerical  or 
classical  schools  of  the  old  world :  to  every  one  his  task,  to  every  one 
his  school. 

Our  task,  the  task  of  the  American  people,  is  traced  by  its 
origin  and  progress.  Started  from  the  rough  shores  of  the  east  in 
quest  of  freedom,  it  has  conquered,  besides,  with  the  plow  and  anvil, 
the  thickness  of  a  continent,  and  stands  on  the  western  shore  a  pro- 
ducer and  trader  ready  for  an  honest  bargain. 

In  this  situation,  the  nation — minus  a  scant  minority  which  may 
be  called  an  ornament  if  small  enough,  an  ulcer  if  large — must  be^ 
and,  so  far,  has  been,  in  the  main,  engaged  in  works  of  production. 
But  we  must  not  shut  our  eyes,  as  some  do  when  they  fall,  to  the 
fact  that  the  number  of  those  who  shun  labor  and  live  on  specula- 
tion increases  out  of  healthy  proportion  with  that  of  those  who 
have  to  feed  them.  This  economical  question  has  something  to  do 
with  ours,  in  so  far  that  the  common  school  must  be  the  last  place 
to  breed  such  costly  animals. 

Looking  not  only  at  the  present  and  local  interest  of  this  con- 
tinent, we  see  that  we  have  almost  at  our  mercy  Europe,  now 
hungry  for  bread,  meat,  and  cotton ;  soon  for  our  coal,  wines, 
and  many  manufactures.  But,  looking  at  a  near  future,  several  parts 
of  Asia,  some  larger  than  Europe,  will  need  to  be  fed  and  supplied 
with  our  goods,  whilst  it  will  not  take  twenty  years  to  open  the 
richest  of  the  continents,  called  dark  because  it  is  the  brightest,  to 
the  ideas  and  trade  of  all  nations.  Will  the  Americans  be  ready, 
not  only  to  plant  their  commerce  and  influence  on  the  Niger  and 
Congo,  but  their  ideas,  and  to  establish,  there,  hygienic  colonies, 
where  those   threatened   with  extinction  of  their  race  by  tubercle 


201  

will  see  it  colored  and  enriched  by  the  mightiest  of  physicians, 
whose  face  is  the  sun  ?  In  the  next  civilization,  purope,  with  its 
petty  divisions,  used-up  soil  and  sickly  productions,  will  fall  back  to 
the  insignificance  from  which  it  had  been  awakened  by  the  rap  of 
the  verge  of  the  Roman  Lictor.  The  civilizing  groups  will  be  con- 
tinental instead  of  provincial  or  national,  and  this  continent  must  be, 
in  its  turn,  the  guiding  star. 

Now,  the  hand  upon  the  heart,  who  is  prepared  to  affirm  that 
the  education  which  has  made  the  Europe  we  see,  can  make  the 
America  we  foresee. . . .? 

There  never  was  a  people  so  master,  and  conscious  altogether,  of 
its  own  destinies,  as  the  American  people  (excepting,  perhaps,  the 
Roman) ;  therefore,  none  who  needed  more  to  educate  its  own  flesh, 
bones,  and  sinews  to  obey  its  own  will,  and  to  bear  its  synergies 
toward  this  future.  Anybody  conscious  of  this  ideal  ceases  to  see 
education  by  any  other  light ;  that  is  the  criterium. 

With  it  as  a  guide,  we  see  what  the  American  school  must  be. 
Beginning  and  ending  in  the  folds  of  woman's  affection  and  tact, 
education  takes  the  child  from  her  lap  to  the  kindergarten,  thence  to 
the  physiological  school.  There,  all  to  be  trained  in  the  use  of 
their  senses,  in  order  to  treasure,  without  distortion,  the  cosmos  in 
their  microcosm.  There,  again,  all  to  be  trained  in  the  use  of  their 
hands,  to  create  from  the  world  of  ideals,  their  concepts  of  what  it  is 
good  for  them  to  do  as  their  part  of  the  co-operative  improvements 
of  our  society  and  planet.  Thence  to  direct  apprenticeship,  or  to 
special  schools  of  art,  of  technology,  etc. ;  thence  to  the  wide  worlds 
in  the  climate  and  with  the  mate  who  suits  them  best,  and  promises 
children  better  than  they  are  themselves. 

But  I  may  be  mistaken.  The  teaching  of  womanly  functions 
to  women,  of  manly  functions  to  men,  of  working  capacities  to  a 
nation  of  producers,  of  the  solidarity  of  all  of  us  for,  by,  and  in 
labor  to  elevate  our  mind,  our  family,  and  our  national  destinies,  may 
be  all  wrong  :  utopiae.  There  is  another  plan.  Cause  the  children 
to  know  as  little  as  possible  about  ideals  convertible  in  plans,  powers 
and  possibilities  of  improving  their  condition.  As  for  your  own, 
cause  the  darling  to  learn  as  much  of  the  dead  and  foreign  lan- 
guages as  not  to  be  able  to  purely  speak  his  mother  tongue ;  to  be 
smart  enough  to  appear  intelligent;  to  restrict  his  mathematics  to 
the  varied  applications  of  the  golden  rule :  four  and  four  make  three 
for  me  and  five  for  himself;  give  him  a  litde  polish  besides,  and  when 
the  down  appears  on  his  upper  lip,  you  can  send  him,  say,  to ... . 
Rome.  He  gets  acquainted  with  nice  fellows,  who  know  where 
representative  B.  lies  drunk,  in  want  of  so  many  thousand  sesterces 
to  pass  a  bill  which  will  save  the  country.  Thence  to  Poppee,  less 
dressed  than  her  statues  or  her  dog,  which  winks  at  him, — a  favor 
which  insures  him  the  privilege  of  coming  again,  by  the  small  door^ 


202  

at  the  small  hours.  When  she — sooner  the  dog — is  tired  of  him,  she 
gives  him  princely  jewels,  and  a  chart — voted  by  the  senators  who 
take  their  voting-peas  from  her  chiseled  dressing-box — which 
exiles  him  in  a  district  of say  Judea,  with  the  power  to  levy  mil- 
lions on  his  countrymen,  and  the  mental  obligation  to  betray  them 
in  their  life  or  death-struggle.  Such  was  young  Josephus,  as  he 
describes  himself,  just  out  of  a  select  school.  Do  not  forget  it, 
Josephus  was  educated  in  the  sect  of  the  Pharisees,  the  Jesuits  of 
his  time. 

I  am  willing  to  acknowledge  that  all  the  boarders  of  these 
select  schools  do  not  profit  so  much  as  he  did  by  the  lessons  of  the 
bon  peres.  Most  of  them,  unpromising  brothers  or  sisters — all  com- 
mon— stop  half-way  to  the  bit  of  arithmetic  quoted  above,  buying, 
selling  what  they  have  not,  in  their  spider-shops,  or  in  the  webs  they 
spin  across  the  street,  or  in  the  sacristy  (Brussels,  Cincinnati).  They 
are  millionaires,  that  is,  they  operate  on  millions.  If  they  fail,  it 
ruins  thousands  of  families.  Hush  !  they  give  such  fine  matinees,  or 
he  is  an  archbishop,  a  temperance  preacher,  a  leader  of  the  Paul- 
ist  brothers^  etc. 

But  the  crash  does  not  come,  necessarily,  from  the  street  or  bank. 
The  inside,  too,  has  its  weak  points.  The  spine  is  stricken  by  the 
thunderbolt  of  news,  the  brain  by  the  tension  of  forming  and 
watching  combinations,  the  sympathetic  by  the  mobility  of  the 
hopes  and  fears,  whence  locomotor  ataxy,  sclerosis,  delirium  des 
grandeurs^  melancholy,  general  paralysis,  etc.  For  the  alleviation 
of  such  chastisement,  about  two  hundred  of  the  culprits  call  daily  to 
physicians  in  the  city  of  New  York  alone.  They  experience  too 
late  that  it  is  harder  for  the  spine  (arbor  vitae)  to  be  stricken  by  a 
fall  of  J4o  of  a  centime  on  stock,  than  to  fell  fifty  good-sized  oaks. 
Beside  these  conspicuous  .figures,  how  many  more  have  left  the 
shop,  the  counter,  the  desk,  to  operate  on  fantastic  capitals,  on  fan- 
tastic deposits,  gulling  dupes  till  they  are  waited  upon  by  delirium 
tremens  or  the  jailer. 

It  is  no  mystery  that  the  plurality  of  the  cases  of  mental 
alienation  entertained  in  sumptuous  palaces — once  caused  by  the 
substitution  of  bigotry  to  religion — are  due  to  the  constantly  in- 
creasing substitution  of  gambling  to  working,  a  substitution  rendered 
almost  unavoidable  by  the  want  of  education  of  the  working 
aptitudes. 

Two  things  retard  yet  the  advent  of  this  true  education.  One 
is  the  low  estimate  of  labor  by  those  who  profit  by  it,  and  conta- 
giously by  those  who  do  it.  The  other  is  the  opposition  of  the  super- 
naturalists,  who  know  that  their  system  of  education  by  imposition 
is  their  last  ditch. 

It  is  a  miserable  fact  that  public  opinion  is  not  prepared  to 
honor  plain  laborers  as  it  once    honored  warriors,  courtiers,  and 


203 

honors  to-day  landlords,  and  speculators  when  successful.  How- 
ever, our  feelings  in  that  respect  come  every  day  nearer  those  of  a 
peasant  of  Gascony  who,  seeing  the  approach  of  the  coach  of  a 
nobleman  noted  for  his  legal  robberies  of  the  villagers,  hastened  near 
the  road,  and,  bowing  almost  to  the  sod,  held  the  head  of  his  son 
lower,  saying  :  "  C  'est  le  grmid  voulour.''  (  Voleur,  thief.)  That  is  the 
transition  between  rendering  yet  homage  to  those  who  once  de- 
served it,  and  to  those  whence  come  now  the  national  honor  and 
prosperity. 

Nothing  can  hasten  this  change  more  surely  than  the  applica- 
tion of  the  principles  of  physiology  to  the  successive  periods  of 
education.  But  nothing  will  be  opposed  more  desperately  than  this 
movement, — not  only  by  those  who,  living  upon  the  booty  accru- 
ing from  previous  arrangements,  answer  with  injuries  and  bullets 
to  reason,  call  names  those  who  philosophically  propose  more  loyal 
arrangements,  as  Spencer,  Mill,  Carlyle,  Lewis,  Bright,  Huxley,  and 
would  have  strangled  Hercules  in  his  crib  if  they  knew  that  he 
would  canalize  the  Alpheus  to  carry  away  their  filth.  But  their 
madness,  being  from  the  pocket,  bears  only  indirectly  against  a 
natural  education,  which  they  dread  by  instinct.  They  will  die,, 
and  their  children  invariably  make  concessions.  But  what  of  those 
who  have  no  children,  who  never  die,  and  whose  hold  on  society 
rests  upon  their  inoculation,  to  the  tender  age,  of  doctrines  destruct- 
ive of  individual  liberty,  of  family  delicacies,  of  the  joys  of  society, 
and  of  the  vigor  of  nations  ?  They  claim  authority  over  man  even 
before  he  is  born  (baptizing  in  utero,  etc.)  They  allow  no  man, 
child,  or  infant,  to  think,  say,  read,  or  do  anything  which  they  have 
not  explicitly  permitted  or  approved.  They  wrench  from  women- 
the  details  of  the  most  intimate  relations,  making  marriage  a  trilogy.. 
They  forbid  social  pleasures,  or  restrict  them  to  the  depraved  excite- 
ments of  the  autos-da-fe  and  bull  fights ;  they  anaethesy  the  moral 
sense  of  the  nations  they  live  upon,  as  Ireland,  Poland,  part  of 
France,  etc. 

Those  they  cannot  beguile,  they  try  to  intimidate, —  besides 
having  a  hand  in  the  plots  tending  to  their  destruction.  They 
threaten,  as  I  have  said  previously,  to  pulverize  society  if  it  does 
not  surrender  the  children  to  them — too  amiable  minotaurs.  Their 
threat  must  be  read  to  be  believed.  I  quote  from  the  last :  "Modern 
society  is  a  usurper  of  the  rights  and  sovereignty  of  the  Vicar  of 
Christ. — Pure  right  exists  only  in  the  Vicar  of  Christ. — The  Catho- 
lic church  of  Europe  has  been  weakened  and  wounded,  it  may  be 
unto  death. — Secular  education  is  taking  the  place  of  ecclesiastical 
education,  which  bodes  ill  for  the  church,  and  still  worse  for  the 

state. — An  unseen  power  is  everywhere  at  work (meaning  the 

secret  work   of  the  Jesuits,  Dominicans,  etc.,  combined ;  though 

telling  the  rc-verse.) There  is  an  abyss  opening  before  civil 

(22) 


204   

society,  into  which  thrones,  and  laws,  and  rights,  and  liberties,  may 
sink  together.  Civilization  has  to  choose  between  the  Revolution 
and  the  Church  of  God."  (The  Catholic  Church  and  Modern 
Society,  Manning,  Feb.,  1880.) 

Civilization  has  not  to  choose,  it  has  chosen  already.  It  scorns 
the  insolent,  reiterated  menaces,  the  splendidly  written  declaration 
of  war,  backed  by  the  most  powerful  army  of  secret  societies  and 
of  open  legions  which  communism  ever  arrayed  against  social  order 
and  progress. 

And  why  this  confidence  in  the  greatest  danger  ? .  Because 

the  would-be  minister  of  Christ  who  fulminated  it,  did  not  dare  to 
name  Jesus  in  an  appeal  to  force  and  perfidy.  The  American 
people  will  no  more  than  the  European  nations  accept  the  educa- 
tional services  of  the  Roman  Church. 

These  services  will  be  firmly  declined,  for  the  reasons  reiterated 
during  the  last  three  hundred  years,  and  for  a  few  more,  of  which 
we  will  consider  only  those  bearing  on  education. 

1.  The  teaching  of  the  church  rests  its  foundation  on  super- 
naturalism.  "The  Catholic  church  is  the  society  of  man  in  the 
supernatural  order"  (Manning);  therefore  it  cannot  educate  our 
children  for  the  society  in  which  they  will  live,  which  is :  "A  civil 
and  political  society  of  the  natural  order."     (Manning.) 

2.  The  Roman  church  cannot  be  trusted  to  teach,  because  it 
has  persecuted  and  put  to  death  the  best  teachers,  burned  and 
otherwise  suppressed  their  books,  and  kept  from  its  charges,  as  long 
as  possible,  the  newly  discovered  laws  of  the  universe,  which  are 
God's  laws ;  that  is  one  of  the  atheisms  of  the  pagan  church  of 
Rome. 

3.  Again,  on  this  last  score,  it  cannot  be  trusted,  because,  in- 
stead of  teaching  a  God  unique  as  Moses  did,  or  trinal  as  Plato, 
Paul,  Jamblicus,  it  has  dished,  for  children  and  childish  people,  a 
theogony  which  descends  from  Mary,  symbol  of  a  worthy  mother,  to 
Jose -the  husband  as  the  priests  want  them. 

4.  Because  its  teachers  substitute  for  the  laws  of  physical  and 
physiological  order, — which  are  God's  laws, — the  revolutionary  proc- 
ess of  miracles  in  human  affairs,  and  in  sciences,  etc.,  because  they 
represent  God  as  stultifying  himself  by  breaking  his  own  laws  at 
their  bidding  or  begging,  and  continue  to  make  miracles,  though  it 
is  notorious  that  their  supernatural  cures  of  Lourdes,  etc.,  are 
made,  as  well  as  those  of  the  Salpetriere,  by  means  of  the  natural 
order. 

5.  Because  they  begin  education  by  teaching  children  what 
they  cannot  understand;  preparing  their  head  for  the  Thomist 
article  of  faith  :  credo  quia  absurdam^  as  the  squaw  manipulates  the 
skull  cf  her  pappoose  to  hasten  its  ossification  and  a  better  resistance 
to  the  tomahawk. 


205 

6.  They  cannot  teach  languages,  unless,  possibly,  the  dead 
ones,  because  they  group  the  words  by  analogy  of  sounds  instead 
of  ideas ;  the  ideologic  method  giving  too  free  scope  to  free 
thinking. 

7.  They  cannot  teach  astronomy,  geology,  geography,  with- 
out giving  the  lie  to  the  judgments  pronounced  ex  cathedra  against 
the  discoveries  which  have  renovated  these  sciences. 

8.  They  cannot  teach  biology,  which  defeats  their  mythology ; 
anatomy,  which  they  have  especially  excommunicated;  physiology, 
their  dread  and  ^'-bzte  7ioirey  They  cannot  open  their  mouth  about 
history,  which  shows  them  destroying  the  old  society  to  estabhsh 
such  a  communism  as  the  barbarians  themselves  could  not  withstand. 
They  cannot  tell  the  history  of  the  reopening  of  the  East,  by  Marco 
Polo, — "Z^  parte  oiiverte^^^  says  one  of  my  old  books, — because,  by 
their  extortions,  conspiracies,  dissensions,  they  forced  the  shutting  of 
that  door  in  the  face  of  the  Europeans  for  almost  six  centuries; 
retarding,  by  that  much,  the  reciprocal  fecundation  of  the  minds  of 
both  hemispheres,  etc. 

9.  They  cannot  be  trusted  to  train  the  imagination  of  chil- 
dren, their  own  being  disordered  one  way  or  the  other  by  the  uni- 
sexuality  of  their  education,  that  is:  either  reduced  to  nihil,  or 
peopled  with  extravagant  or  monstrous  ideals. 

10.  Unsafe  trustees,  too,  in  sentimental  matters.  Those  edu- 
cated by  them,  having  had  but  supernatural  types,  do  not  know  where 
to  stop  in  the  natural  order.  One  passes  from  the  adoration  of  the 
Virgin  to  coarse  realities ;  and  the  other,  having  kept  company  with 
the  archangel  Gabriel,  accepts  the  man  who  brings  her  the  biggest 
dowry. 

11.  They  cannot  be  chosen  as  models  of  literature  and  poetry, 
their  works  being  too  heavy,  as  Father  Kirsher's,  the  worthy  Bollan- 
dist's,  etc.,  or  too  light,  as  those  of  the  Abbe  Chaulieu  ;  their  light 
literature,  consisting  of  over  eleven  hundred  erotics,  produced  by 
some  four  hundred  priests,  headed  by  the  De  Amor  is  Remedio  of 
Pope  Pio  II.:  a  whole  library  of  gaillardises  written  by  a  cohort  of 
Gaillards  of  whom  the  French  would  say  :  J^e  ne  leur  confierais  pas 
ma  fille. 

12.  The  French  may  be  right  or  wrong;  but  above  what  he 
calls  pkhi  mignon  and  the  Monsignore  peccadillo,  there  are  rehibit- 
ory  causes  for  not  trusting  in  our  schools,  corporations  which  keep 
celibacy,  but  not  always  chastity. 

As  this  is  one  of  their  favorite  weapons  against  their  opponents, 
1  will  say  no  more  than  to  advise  to  consult  the  personal  notes  of 
the  Secretary  of  Public  Instruction,  and  the  minutes  of  the  Secre- 
tary of  Justice  in  France,  Belgium,  and  other  countries,  before  al- 
lowing the  teachers  "of  a  supernatural  order"  to  develop  their 
unnatural  propensities  in  our  schools  "of  a  natural  order." 


206  

I  did  not  expect  nor  desire  to  close  this  report  by  a  reiteration 
of  my  former  warnings.  But  since  the  reiteration  of  former  threat- 
enings  has  made  it  opportune,  I  will  add  a  word  more.  It  is  about 
the  adroit  efforts  made  by  the  only  dangerous  communists  to  obscure 
the  differences  which  are  essential  between  communism  and  social- 
ism ;  one  striving  to  annihilate  individuality,  the  other  to  ascertain 
and  develop  it  in  all  its  modalities,  by  social  improvements.  Com- 
munism is  what  Manning  aims  at  without  naming  it.  Socialism  is 
what  he  insults.  In  essence,  socialism  is  the  ensemble  of  the  social 
questions  which  rise  from  time  to  time,  and  are  in  turn  studied  by 
Quesnay,  Vico,  Comte,  Enfantin,  Spencer,  Mill,  here  by  Madam 
Howe,  etc.,  previous  to  being  discussed,  accepted,  or  rejected  by 
the  public,  which  is  not  a  pecus,  as  some  pastors  would  have  it. 

However,  these  apparent  digressions  were  not  all  loss  to  our  sub- 
ject, since,  precising  what  we  do  not  want,  they  have,  by  climmation, 
almost  defined  what  we  need. 

We  need  a  system  of  education  commensurate  to  our  destinies. 
We  have  landed  here  at  different  dates  of  modern  history,  cerre- 
sponding  to  the  sufferings  of  Europe,  to  escape  either  hunger,  serf- 
dom, excommunication,  supplices  or  princely  and  priestly  slaughters 
en  masse;  and  we  succeeded  so  far  as  to  be  able  to  foresee  that  at 
each  generation  our  children  will  be  freer  and  happier  than  ourselves. 

We  see  that  this  freedom  and  happiness  rests  entirely  on  the 
education  we  will  give  them. 

Considering  humanity,  our  education  will  teach,  by  principles 
and  examples,  the  co-ordination  and  inter-dependence  of  what  a 
child  learns,  with  what  he  will  have  to  do  as  a  man,  and  of  what  he 
executes  with  what  others  need ;  that  is  not  communality,  but 
solidarity  of  every  one  in  the  social  movement  and  order. 

Considering  society,  we  want  education  to  be  given  as  advance 
money  on  the  social  contract  which  binds  every  one  to  work  in 
view  of  the  public  good,  beside  for  the  direct  advantage  of  self 
and  family. 

Considering  education  as  a  national  and  scientific  affair,  it 
must  give  a  mathematical  account  of  the  growth  and  physiological 
development  of  each  child  and  group  of  children,  to  render  possible 
an  annual  bilan  of  the  vital  forces  of  the  nation. 

Considering  our  geographical  position,  and  consequent  moral 
attitude  between  the  orient  and  Occident,  the  vastnessof  our  milieu, 
our  education  must  be  concentric  and  homogeneous,  humane  yet 
national,  and,  above  all,  familiale.  With  the  unity  of  our  conti- 
nent, of  unbroken  skies  from  east  to  west,  of  air,  source  of  the 
pneuma,  from  west  to  east,  of  means  of  locomotion  everywhere, 
and  of  language  for  the  incessant  exchange  of  our  animus,  the  most 
universal,  bi-sexual,  therefore  natural  education  is  needed,  woman 
the  natural  teacher  of  the  free  American. 


207  

This  is  not  all  that  I  have  to  say  on  physiological  education. 

Its  first  materials  were  gathered  before  1839,  and  six  fragments 
of  it  were  published  before  1846.  At  this  date  appeared  ^'- The  Edu- 
cation of  Idiots^''  the  last  words  of  which  are  (page  729) :  "Here  I 
deposit  the  material  for  a  method  of  physiological  education  appli- 
cable to  all  children ....    It  remains  only  to  write  it " 

This  piece  of  youthful  confidence  was  written  by  the  cradle  of 
my  son,  my  wife  sewing  under  the  same  light,  strengthening  the 
thread  of  my  ideas,  in  the  more  retired  of  the  two  rooms  where 
Horace  Mann  and  George  Sumner  had  come,  three  years  before,  to 
confer  on  the  application  of  this  method  for  the  improvement  of 
idiots  in  America, — eight  years  before  the  oeuvre  of  Froebel  was 
called  Kindergarten. 

I  was  to  write  this  method  to  help  us  in  educating  our  son — her 
son  mainly  by  the  character, — and  now,  after  thirty -four  years,  I  am 
hardly  able  to  give  an  outline  of  it,  interrupted  by  the  current  of 
the  detritus  of  other  thoughts  and  duties  ;  so  that  my  son  has  grown 
to  be  capable  of  being  my  master  in  many  things — if  I  was  not  too 
old  to  learn, — and  for  fear  I  will  not  have  the  time  to  write 
that  so  long  dreamed-of  method,  I  dedicate  its  imperfect  and  inci- 
dental expression  to  my  grand-children,  Edward,  John,  and  Jeanette 
Seguin,  to  be  applied  by  their  mother,  who  is  their  teacher. 

New  York,  41  W.  20th  St.,  February  15,  1880. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PART    I. 

INFANT  EDUCATION 

Chapter  I. 

THE  CRADLE  AND  THE  CRECHE. 

Page 

1.  Introduction        -.---..-         3 

2.  The  cradle  -..--.-.  4 
Pre-natal  impressions       ---.--.5 

3.  The  creche      --.-.-.-  % 

Chapter  II. 

THE    SALLE    D'ASYLE. 

4.  Mothers  as  teachers         -------      10 

5.  Salle  d-asyle  described  -  -  -  -  -  -  11 

6.  Motors  of  infants  -  -  -  -  -  -  -12 

Chapter  III. 

THE    KINDERGARTEN. 

7     Practical  and  ideal  .__---  .       16 

8.  Historic  -.-.-.--  18 

9.  Method    .-.----.      ]9 

10.  Training         ---.---.  20 

Chapter  IV. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL   INFANT    SCHOOL. 

11.  Origin  and  basis  .-.-...  25 

12.  Physiological  considerations  -----  26 

13.  Training  --.---..  27 
a.  b.  c.  Its  physiological  theory  -----  29 
d.     Muscular  training     -------  31 

14.  Symmetrical  trainintj  -.-...  31 

15.  Application  to  education  -  -  -  -  -  -  33 


210  

Chaptfr  v. 

of  the  senses. 

Page 

16.  Of  sensation         ........  S6 

17.  Object  lessons            ,             .             .             .             ...  37 

At  the  Vienna  Exhibition            -             -             -             -             -             -  38 

Toys               -             - 40 

In  the  Infant  School        -             -             -             -             -             -             -  41 

Training  of  the  senses            -            -            -            -            -            -  42 


PART   II. 
EDUCATIOW  OF  THE    DEAF-MUTES. 

Introduction         --.-.-.-44 

18.  The  schools  -  -  -  -  -  -  -'  -  44 

Origin      -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -       54 

Chapter  I. 

THE    HOLLAND-GERMAN    SCHOOL. 

19.  History— Hill,  Hirsch,  Janke,  Saegert  -  -  -  -       47 

20.  Schools  of  Speech — Zurich,  Vienna,  Breslau,  Koenigsberg,  Liegnitz, 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  Brussels,  Antwerp,  Rotterdam   -  -  .  48 

21 .  Success  of  the  method    -  -  -  -  -  -  -       49 

22.  Collective  teaching     -------  50 

23.  Conclusions         -  -  -  -  -  -  -.51 

Chapter  II. 

THE    SPANISH-FRENCH    SCHOOL. 

24.  History  from  Pierre  Ponce  de  Leon  to  Hernandez  and  Don  Lopez  -       53 
From  Pereire  to  de  I'Epee     -             -             -             -             -             -  54 

25.  Pereire's  method               -            -             -            -             -            -  -       56 

Voice  communicated  by  its  vibrations             -             -             -             -  57 

26.  ReportofBuffon  to  the  .A.cademy  of  the  Sciences  (1749)            -  -       58 

Chapter  III. 
l'abbe  de  l'epee  and  his  time. 

27.  Historic -  -      60 

His  only  book             -------  62 

Which  of  the  two  is  the  French  school  ?              -            -            -  -       63 

Itard  tries  to  revive  it             ------  65 


Chapter  IV. 

ANGLO-AMERICAN    SCHOOL. 

Page 

28.    Historic  ...             ......  67 

School  of  Northampton          .---.-  68 

39.   Visible  speech      --------  69 

School  of  Jacksonville           .-..-.  70 

30.  German  method               .--.--.  71 
Tactile  method            .-...-.  74 

31.  Comparison         -             -             -            -             -             -             -             -  76 

Italian  schools            -.-..--  77 

English  schools    -.--.---  78 

Congress  of  English  teachers              -             _            _            -            -  79 

Miss  Hull's  Memoir 80 

Natural  method  of  speech      -             .             -             -             -             -  82 


PART   III. 

EDUCATION  OF  IDIOTS. 

Chapter  I. 

FOREIGN    SCHOOLS    FOR    IDIOTS. 

32.  Origin.     Sauvagede  I'Aveyron  -             -            -            -             -            -  84 

German  schools — Liegnitz,  Crashnitz,  Gladbach       -             -             -  85 

33.  Belgian  and  Dutch  schools— Gheel ,  Ghent,  the  Hague               -            -  87 

34.  French  schools  for  idiots        -             .             .            .             -            -  89 

35.  Bicetre 89 

36.  La  Salpetriere             .....              -             -  90 

37.  English  schools  ..-..-..  92 

38.  Eastern  Counties— Asylums               -----  92 

39.  Earlswood  school            -.-.-.-  92 
Modus  docendi           .--...-  i)3 

40.  I^ncaster  school               .......  95 

41 .  Normanfield  school    .....--  96 

42.  Larberg  (Scotch)  Institution      -             -             .   •         -             -             -  97 
Darent  (near  London)  Institution     -             -             -          ■  -             -  97 

43.  Plans  of  the  Charity  Organization  Committee     -             -            -             -  98 

44.  Swiss  cretins              -            -                         -            -            -            -  98 

45 .  Italian  cretins        -             -             -             -             -            -             -        -  100 

Chapter  II. 

AMERICAN    SCHOOLS    FOR    IDIOTS. 

46.  Barre  school      -.-.....  101 

47.  New  York  State  Institution              -----  102 

48 .  Pennsylvania  State  Training  School      .             .             -             .             -  103 

49.  Ohio  State  Training  School  -            -----  104 

50.  Some  points  of  the  training  of  idiots     -             -             -             -            .  104 
Entrainement           -             -             -             -            -             -             -  105 


212    — 

Page 

By  hand  drills -  106 

nius'.rated  by  a  case             -.,...  107 

a.  By  playthings           .--_..-  108 

b.  By  music           -..-.-.  108 

c.  By  sight       --..---.  109 

d.  Must  idiots  be  amused  ?.---.  110 
51 .   Conclusions        ..----..  HI 


PART   IV. 

POPULAR   EDUCATION  AS  IT  IS  AND   AS  IT 
SHOULD  BE. 

Chapter  I. 

THE    COMMON    SCHOOL   AS    I    HAVE    FOUND    IT. 

52.  Recent  origin  of  the  common  school      -----  113 

53.  English  popular  education  ------  113 

54.  Swedish  school  -  -  -  -  -  -  -114 

55.  Swiss  school             .__.--.  115 

56.  Italian  schools    -             -             -            -.-             -             -            -  116 

57.  Portuguese  schools  .------  117 

58.  Austrian  schools             -------  117 

59.  German  school        -             -             -             -             -            -             -  117 

Warnings  of  Cuvier  and  Cousins           -----  118 

60.  Dutch  and  Belgian  schools               -             .             -             -             -  Hg 

61 .  Popular  education           -             -             -             -            -            -            -  118 

a.     Progress  and  reaction    ------  119 

h.     School  material        -------  120 

c.  Methods  of  teaching       -             -----  120 

d.  Unhealthy  stimulation        -             -             -             -             -             -  12 1 

e.  Unions  Scolaires             -             -             -             -             -             -  121 

/.     Teachers'  salaries                 ------  121 

g .    French  delegates  to  the  Centennial  Exhibition  at  Philadelphia  121 

62.  American  popular  education                   -----  122 

63.  Criterium                 -------  122 

a.  School-houses  and  rooms                .             .             .            .             .  122 

b.  School  furniture             --.--.  123 

c.  School  exhibits       -------  123 

d.  Role  of  the  critic           ------  1,23 

Chapter  II. 

THE    COMMON  SCHOOL    AS    IT    SHOULD    BE. 

64.  Specifications:     a.  Position,  how  built             .             .             -             -  125 

b.  Furniture            -------  125 

c.  Class-room  airy  arrangement            .             -             -             -             -  126 

d.  Relative  positions  of  teacher  and  pupils               .             -            -  126 

e.  Teaching  appliances             -            -             -             -             -             -  127 

/.    Material  and  moral  order           -             -             -             -             -  127 

ff.   Lancaster  school's  device                  -             -             -             -             -  128 


—    213  

Page 

65.  School  books,     o.  American       -----            -v  128 

b.  Accomodating  the  type  of  the  books  to  the  power  of  the  eye       -  128 

c.  Accomodating    the   subject  matter  of  the  book    to  their   compre- 

hension                   -------  128 

d.  History  distorted              ------  129 

e.  Thinkers  who  have  read  little  .  .  -  -  .  130 
/.  Why  books  are  necessary  in  the  school  -  -  -  130 
g.  Present  school-means  insufficient  -----  131 
h.   The  school  to  be  enlarged             .             -             .             .             -  131 

Chapter  III. 

GARDEN    SCHOOLS. 

66.  a.   Growth  of  the  idea      -                         -            -            -            -            -  13^ 

b .  Axioms  of  physiological  education             .            -            -            .  132 

c .  Life  of  ideas                  -...-..  132 

d.  First  garden- schools          ------  133 

e.  Jardin  des  Plantes       ..----.  I34 

/.    Popular  gardens                .-.-.:  134 

g.   Park  of  Montsouri      -------  134 

h.   The  Pincio              -             -             -             -             -             -             -  135 

i.   From  gardens  to  museums                 -             -             -             -             -  136 

67.  j .   The  Kensington  and  Sydenham                 .             -             .             .  13ft 
k.   The  teachings  of  sights           ------  136 

I.  The  parks  as  means  of  education               -             .             -             .  135 

m.   Precedents  justifying  their  use  as  such           .             -             .             -  137 

68 .  In  New  York,  public  grounds  arranged  as  teaching  and  play-grounds  137 

a.  The  Central  Park         -             -             -             -             -             -             -  138 

b.  c.  d.   And  others,  their  local  destination  and  arrangement           -  139 

69.  The  Battery,  historical  grounds                -             .             .             -             -  140 
a.b.c.   Parks  of  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati,  etc.         -             -             -  141 

70.  Village  garden- schools  and  museums      -----  143 
What  to  learn  on  the  ground              -----  143 

71.  Geography,  orientation    -------  144 

72.  Mensuration                ----...  145 

Chapter  VI. 

THE    metric    system. 

73 .  a.  b.  c.     Opposition  to  it  by  the  automatons       -             -             -             -  143 

d.  e.     International  quantitative  language                  -             -             -  149 

/.     Taught  through  the  senses    ----..  14^ 

g.     Dimension,  proportion,  etc.         -----  150 

♦  J.     Decimal  numeration,  metric  calculation      -             -             .             .  151 

k.     Natural  geometry             -             -             -             -             -             -  151 

/.     The  Primaries  of  the  primary  school              -             .             .             .  153 

Chapter  V. 
education  of  the  senses. 

74 .  What  is  it  ?                      -            -            -            -            -            -            -  153 

75 .  Education  of  the  medical  senses         -----  154 

a.  Of  the  smell               -            -             -            -            -            -            -  155 

b.  Of  gustation          -----                          .  155 


Page 

c.  The  eye                         .-.----  155 

d.  The  hearing  and  the  touch             -             -             -             -             -  155 

e.  The  hand        -            -            -            -            -            -            -            -  156 

,/".   What  Virchow  could  have  said      _             .             -             -             -  156 

76.  Education  of  the  industrial  senses            -             -             -             -        .-    -  157 

a.  The  working  aptitudes      -             -             -             -             -             '  ^^^ 

b .  Creation  and  conservation  of  types     -             -           .  -             -             -  159 

c.  Neuro-muscular  problem               -----  159 

d.  It  is  an  aggressive  sense         ------  159 

e.  Its  training             -------  159 

/.   Touch  and  tact             -             -             -             -             -             -             -  160 

ff.   Their  CO- gymnastics           ------  160 

h.   In  practical  schools     -------  161 

i.    Effects  of  the  neglect  of  the  training  of  the  senses            -             -  162 

77.  Education  of  the  hand      -             -             -             -             -             -             "  -^S? 

a.  How  neglected      -             -             -             -             -             -             -  1"^ 

b .  Some  truth  in  chiromancy      ------  163 

c.  How  to  educate  the  hand               ...-->  163 

d.  Both  hands  to  be  trained        -             -             -             -             -             -  163 

78 .  a.   Education  of  the  eye          ------  164 

b .  The  visible  beautiful               -             -             -             -             -             '  \^Z 

c .  How  it  is  perceived 
"     d.   Illustration 


e. 

f.    Models 
Home  art 


165 
165 


Proportions  and  style         ------  j^^ 


166 
166 


h.   Psycho-physiological  plan       -             -             -             -             -             '  IcZ 

i.j.   Cannot  begin  too  soon                -----  167 

k.   Thehne           -             -             -             -                         '             '  iS 

I.   Kindergarten  drawing       ..----  IW 

m.   Place  of  drawing  in  education            -             -             -             -             -  16o 

n.   Drawing  of  artists  and  artisans     -----  j^ 

79.  a.  Writing  and  reading  -------  169 

b.  Two  methods         -'           -             -             -             -             '             "  i70 

c.  Our  writing     --------  170 

d.  Its  degradation      -             -             -             -             -                          -  |J[J 

c.   Its  bad  effects               -             -             -             -             -             "  17? 

/.    New  departure      -             -             -             -             -^           -             '  j^j 

80.  Speaking  and  talking       -             -             -             -             -             -             '  J7} 

a.  The  fine  art  of  speaking    ------  171 

b.  Speaking  attitudes      -             -             -             -             -             "             '  \1yi 

c.  Talking  attitudes               ---'-'  ]IJ, 

d.  Family  talks                -             -             -             -             -             "  170 

81.  Language       - '  ]li 

a .  Primaries  of  language             -             -             -             -             '             "  | '  ^ 

b .  Language  from  the  books              -----  17d 

c.  Language  from  nature             -              -----  17d 

d.  By  didactic  apposition       ;"'■■"  jZJ 

e .  By  simultaneous  provocation               -             -             -             -             "  j^^ 

82 .  Musical  instruction     -------  1^5 

a.  The  piano       -             -             -             -----  1^0 

b.  Physiological  music            ------  17^ 

e.   Popular  Songs              -------  j^o 

83.  Imagination    --------  l^^^ 

a.   Learning  versus  perceiving     ------  1^^ 

b .  Imagination  is  a  power     ------  1^^ 

c.  Imagination  to  be  educated    -  -  -  -  -  -in 


215  

Page 

d.  By  the  old  method            ------  177 

e.  By  object  lessons        -----..  I77 

/.     By  the  psycho-physiological  method         -             -             .             .  177 

g.   Conveyance  and  evoca "lion  of  miages              -             -             .             .  173 

h.    Simple  illustration             ---...  178 

i.    Higher  aims  of  imagination  ------  179 

y.    Higher  yet             -------  igO 

k.   Images,  ideals,  ideas,  realizations      -             .             .             .             .  igO 

I.    Idealizing  ourselves           ------  \^\ 

Chapter  VI. 

84.   School  organization           -             -             -,           -             -             .             -  182 

a .  Continuity  of  the  schools               -----  i82 

b .  Schools  for  the  poor  worked  children             -             -             -             .  182 

c.  How  long  they  remain  at  school                 -             -            .             .  183 

d.  Their  proportion  of  labor  to  schooling           -             -             .             .  i83 

e.  Reformatory  schools          -             -              -             -             .             .  184 

/.    Religious  interference             ------  184 

g.   Its  results              -------  i84 

h .  Communistic  schools              -            -            -            -            -            -  •  185 

i.    Schools  with  apprenticeship          -----  i85 

Chapter  VII. 

86.   Sex  in  education              ------            -  \ftfy 

a.  The  first  convent  schools              -----  186 

b.  Their  dismlegrating  influence             -----  186 

c.  Their  attractiveness           ------  187 

d.  Their  demoralizing  effects      ------  187 

e .  Morality  of  co-education                 -----  188 

/.    Same  curriculum        -------  i89 

g.   Same  timing  for  both  sexes           -----  i89 

Chapter  VIII. 

86.  a.   Sex  of  the  teachers     -             -             -             -             .             -             -  190 

b .  Woman  the  educator        ------  190 

c.  Thf-ir  ix)sition  harassed          --..-.  191 

d.  To  defend  the  country      ------  191 

e .  The  school  of  Pascal               .-.--.  192 

Chapter  IX. 

87.  The  school  director          -----..  193 

a.  Leader  of  the  future  nation          -----  193 

b.  Descartes,  Virchow,  Paul  Bert,  Aristoteles               -            -            -  193 

88.  The  scholar   --..--,.  194 

89.  Psycho-physiological  book-keeping          -             -             -             -             -  195 

Chapter  X. 

Conclusions. — Resume           -------  193 


Post-dedication 


207 


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